Banking Concentration Extends Beyond Assets

As Mexican banking becomes increasingly digital, its physical footprint remains difficult to ignore. The country’s largest banks continue to occupy hundreds of thousands of square meters of office and retail space. Behind that footprint operates a network of more than 11,300 branches and a workforce exceeding 270,000 employees.

That presence is concentrated primarily in the metropolitan areas of Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey, the country’s three largest office markets. Within them, commercial banking institutions occupy more than 740,000 sqm of office space and another 90,000 sqm of retail space.

In the past year alone, office space occupied by banking institutions grew by roughly 3% in absolute terms, while retail space remained virtually unchanged. The difference suggests that although the physical service network has remained stable, corporate functions continue to require additional capacity.

However, that scale is not distributed evenly. Despite comprising 53 institutions, most of the space occupied by the banking sector is concentrated among a small number of banks. According to SiiLA, BBVA, Citi, Santander, Banorte and HSBC account for seven out of every ten square meters of office space occupied by banking institutions and nearly eight out of every ten square meters of retail space.

The branch network shows a similar pattern. Nationwide, nearly eight out of every ten branches belong to Banco Azteca, BBVA, BanCoppel, Banamex, Banorte and Santander.

That real estate concentration mirrors the structure of the financial system itself. Data from the CNBV show that consolidated commercial banking accounts for nearly 60% of the Mexican financial system’s assets through its more than fifty institutions. Within that universe, BBVA holds 23% of sector assets, Santander 13% and Banorte 12%, meaning that nearly one out of every two pesos managed by commercial banks is concentrated in the country’s three largest institutions.

The pattern is also reflected in the sector’s workforce. As of the end of the first quarter of 2026, commercial banking institutions directly employed more than 270,000 people. BBVA accounted for 17% of that workforce, followed by Banamex with 13%, Banorte with 11%, Banco Azteca with 10% and Santander with 8%.