CarnetMexico’s domestic card scheme: debit, credit, and prepaid cards issued by local banks and accepted at terminals, ATMs, and websites connected to the national network. A rare Latin American survivor alongside Visa and Mastercard, it endures thanks to the switch behind it more than to its brand, which consumers barely notice.Prosa (an acceptance brand owned and operated by the Prosa switch, which is itself owned by Banorte, Santander México, Scotiabank México, HSBC México, Invex, and Banjército) · since 1968
Global registry · Latin America · Central America
Mexico Payment systems
25 systems listed.
CurrencyMexican peso (MXN)
Domestic schemeCarnet
RegulatorBanco de México (Banxico) / CNBV
Leading payment methods
CardsWallets (Mercado Pago)SPEI (bank transfer)Cash (OXXO)
E-commerce shares
Cards · 40%Wallets · 25%Account-to-account · 15%Cash · 12%Other · 5%Buy now, pay later · 3%
OXXO + SPEI. OXXO Pay: shoppers order online and pay cash at the counter of one of some 22,000 OXXO convenience stores, bridging e-commerce and the cash economy. SPEI is Banxico’s real-time interbank credit transfer system; its QR cousin CoDi never took off.
OXXO network≈22,000 cash collection points
Banking access≈half of adults underbanked
About half of adults remain underbanked, so cash vouchers are still essential. Mercado Pago and neobanks (Nubank, Stori) are bringing people into the banking system at speed.
Learn about this market. The guides and courses that cover it.
Payments in MexicoPayments in the Caribbean and Central AmericaPayments in Argentina, Chile, and UruguayPayments in Mexico and the AndesPayments in Peru, Bolivia, and EcuadorPayment success rates and what drives themAccepting payments in MexicoAccepting payments in Argentina and ChileAccepting payments in Colombia and PeruPayments in Latin America: Pix, cash, and cuotasOpening a new market: the payments playbookCollecting payments for the public sector
Card schemes
Instant payments
DiMo (Dinero Móvil)Phone number alias layer on top of SPEI, designed to fix CoDi’s failure by removing the need to enter the 18-digit CLABE. It is the functional equivalent of Zelle or Pix keys, with the central bank as operator. In 2026, Banxico issued new rules requiring banks to simplify their mobile apps to speed up adoption.Banco de México (in partnership with the Asociación de Bancos de México (ABM)) · since 2023Registered users grew from 5.6 million to 12.2 million over 2024 (Banco de México / ABM)
SPEI (Sistema de Pagos Electrónicos Interbancarios)One of the world’s first interbank instant payment systems, and by far the largest in Latin America. The central bank runs it directly, it is free or nearly free, and it has been open to nonbank institutions since Mexico’s Fintech Law (Ley Fintech). It is a rare case of instant payments displacing cards as an everyday payment rail: the distribution of amounts points to overwhelmingly retail use, not wholesale.Banco de México (central bank) · since 2004More than 7.3 billion transfers in 2025, up 36.8% year over year, worth nearly MXN 600 trillion (about 16.8 times GDP), at an average rate of about 230 transactions per second; 94% of transactions are at or below 1,500 UDI (Mexico’s inflation-indexed unit), about MXN 13,200 (Banco de México, statement by Governor Victoria Rodríguez Ceja, 2026)
Clearing and settlement
CCEN (Cámara de Compensación Electrónica Nacional) / CecobanMexico’s only private retail clearing house: checks, non-urgent electronic transfers (TEF), and direct debits (domiciliaciones), settled through SICAM. It is being steadily sidelined by the rise of SPEI, which offers instant payments at a comparable cost.Cecoban (S.A. de C.V. (owned by a consortium of Mexican banks)) · since 1996
Domiciliación de recibosMexico’s direct debit, with its own mandate and refund rules. It remains the rail for recurring billing, since SPEI has no equivalent of the SEPA mandate.Cecoban (S.A. de C.V.; framework set by Banco de México) · since 2002
SICAM (Sistema de Cámaras)Settles on a net basis, on SIAC accounts, the obligations from the retail clearing houses (checks, TEF, direct debits). The link between the private operator Cecoban and central bank money.Banco de México · since 1998
TEF (Transferencia Electrónica de Fondos)Mexico’s non-urgent bulk credit transfer, settling on D+1. It still exists but no longer makes economic sense compared with SPEI; do not offer it by default in a new integration.Cecoban, S.A. de C.V. · since 1994
Wallets
Mercado Pago (Mexico)Mexico’s most widely used non-bank financial super app: wallet, QR, merchant acquiring, credit, investing, and a pending application for a Mexican banking license. It competes head-on with traditional banks for deposit accounts, drawing on MercadoLibre’s e-commerce traffic.MercadoLibre (Inc. (through Mercado Pago)) · since 2004
Spin by OXXODigital wallet built on the OXXO convenience store network, paired with a loyalty program. Its strength is physical, not technological: stores serve as cash-in and cash-out points, making it a financial inclusion vehicle that competes head-on with banks for unbanked customers. An often-missed compliance point: the issuer is neither FEMSA nor OXXO but a separate IFPE, Compropago.Compropago S.A. de C.V. (electronic payment funds institution (IFPE, Mexico’s e-money license) of FEMSA’s Spin digital unit, created in 2021 and renamed Spin in 2024; Spin Premia is its loyalty arm) · since 2021
Interoperable QR
CoDi (Cobro Digital)Interoperable QR and NFC payments running on SPEI, completely free for both merchant and customer, yet an adoption failure often cited as the counterexample to Brazil’s Pix. The lesson for payments leaders: free pricing and interoperability are not enough without distribution in banking apps and incentives for merchants.Banco de México · since 2019About 9,900 transactions a day on average in 2024, very low adoption for the population size (market sources, 2025); Banxico and the ABM publicly acknowledge that public awareness of CoDi and DiMo is poor (November 2025)
Buy now, pay later
Kueski PayMexican installment payment service marketed explicitly as an alternative to credit cards: up to 12 biweekly payments (six months), online and in physical stores, at major international retailers. It is built for a population that mostly has no credit card: in Mexico, BNPL replaces revolving credit rather than complementing it, unlike in the US.Kueski, S.A.P.I. de C.V., SOFOM, E.N.R. (unregulated multiple-purpose financial company (SOFOM E.N.R.), based in Guadalajara, Jalisco)
Acquiring and processing
ClipMexico’s leading mPOS acquirer and the local equivalent of Square. It opened card acceptance to hundreds of thousands of micro-merchants that banks had long shut out, and it is the entry point to card acceptance for Mexico’s informal economy.PayClip, Inc. / Clip (Mexico) · since 2012
ProsaOne of the two switches that route card and ATM transactions in Mexico, and the owner of the Carnet brand. A Mexican issuer or acquirer has to connect to Prosa or E-Global, a duopoly with no equivalent in the US or Canada.Prosa (S.A. de C.V., owned by Banorte, Santander México, Scotiabank México, HSBC México, Invex, and Banjército) · since 1968
E-GlobalThe second of Mexico’s two national switches. It routes card and ATM transactions and handles processing for the banks that own it. The E-Global/Prosa duopoly is the defining feature of the market: every issuer and acquirer has to connect to one of the two, an arrangement that Cofece, Mexico’s competition authority, has scrutinized.E-Global S.A. de C.V. (owned by BBVA México and Citibanamex; the other switch, Prosa, is owned by Banorte, Santander México, Scotiabank México, HSBC México, Invex, and Banjército)
Cross-border rails
Directo a MéxicoThe official ACH corridor from the US to Mexico, operated by the Federal Reserve Banks through FedGlobal and connected on the Mexican side to Banco de México’s SPEI. US financial institutions originate the payments, at a Banxico reference exchange rate and with very low fees. It is rarely mentioned, even though it is the institutional alternative to money transfer operators on the world’s largest remittance corridor. On November 25, 2025, Federal Reserve Financial Services announced that FedGlobal ACH Payments would be discontinued: transfers to Mexico will no longer be accepted after November 20, 2026.Federal Reserve Banks / Banco de México (via the FedGlobal service) · since 2003
BitsoA crypto platform turned remittance rail: it buys stablecoins on the US side, moves them outside correspondent banking, and pays out in pesos in Mexico. On the world’s largest remittance corridor, it claims about a tenth of the volume. It is the most concrete case of a crypto rail carrying real payments rather than speculation.Bitso (founded in 2014 in Mexico City; its business-payments arm settles in stablecoins and also operates in Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina) · since 2014US$6.5 billion in remittances processed in 2024, up 51% year over year, or about 10% of the US–Mexico corridor (Bitso, 2025)
Other
DALÍThe system for holding, administering, and settling Mexican securities on a DVP basis, linked to SIAC for the cash leg. It replaced SIDV.S.D. Indeval Institución para el Depósito de Valores, S.A. de C.V. · since 2008
Ley Fintech / IFPE regimeCreates Instituciones de Fondos de Pago Electrónico (IFPEs, e-money institutions) and IFCs (crowdfunding platforms), and lets nonbanks access SPEI. It is the legal foundation of Mexico’s entire fintech ecosystem: the first law of its kind in Latin America, and often cited as a regional model.CNBV / Banco de México · since 2018
OXXO Pay and PaynetAn essential rail for Mexican e-commerce: the customer orders online, gets a barcode, pays cash in a store, and the order is released. Nothing of comparable scale exists in the US or Canada. Any merchant selling into Mexico without this payment method gives up a significant share of the market.FEMSA (OXXO Pay); Paynet · since 2015
SIAC (Sistema de Atención a Cuentahabientes de Banco de México)Holds the banks’ current accounts at Banxico and provides intraday liquidity. It is the final settlement layer under SPEI, SICAM, and retail clearing: invisible from outside but essential to understanding Mexico’s setup.Banco de México · since 1995
SPEUA (Sistema de Pagos Electrónicos de Uso Ampliado)DiscontinuedShut down in August 2005 after a year running alongside SPEI, which replaced it. Still cited in comparative literature on Mexican payment systems; treat it as historical.Banco de México · since 1995
SPID (Sistema de Pagos Interbancarios en Dólares)A system rarely documented outside Mexico. It settles same-day US dollar transfers between accounts at banks established in Mexico, under a stricter compliance regime. It was created in response to US correspondent banks pulling back (de-risking) and is essential for any Mexican exporter.Banco de México · since 2016
CLABE (Clave Bancaria Estandarizada)Mexico’s 18-digit standardized account number (institution code, location code, account number, and a modulo 10 check digit), required for every domestic electronic transfer in Mexico since June 1, 2004. It is the addressing layer beneath SPEI, CoDi, and DiMo, and its length is exactly the usability problem DiMo was built to hide.Asociación de Bancos de México (a standard defined with Banco de México; the ABM (Mexican Bankers Association) assigns institution codes, and each bank generates the CLABEs for its own accounts) · since 2004
CCV (Contraparte Central de Valores de México)The central counterparty for Mexico’s equities market. It stands between buyer and seller, clears trades, and manages risk before settlement and delivery at Indeval. Together with Asigna, it fills in the half of Mexican post-trade that the DALÍ/Indeval entry alone does not cover.Contraparte Central de Valores de México, S.A. de C.V. (a Grupo BMV company, authorized under the Securities Market Law (Ley del Mercado de Valores) and assessed by Banco de México) · since 2004
Asigna, Compensación y LiquidaciónThe clearing house and central counterparty for MexDer, Mexico’s exchange-traded derivatives market: futures, options, and swaps. Its legal form, a fideicomiso (trust) rather than a company, is a Mexican quirk that trips up comparative analyses of CCPs.Asigna, Compensación y Liquidación (set up as an administration and payment trust (fideicomiso) held at BBVA Bancomer, whose settlors are Mexico’s major banks and brokerage firms) · since 1998