History
Banorte was founded in 1992 in the city of Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico and is the primary subsidiary of Grupo Financiero Banorte, one of Mexico's largest and oldest financial institutions, which has been present in Mexico since 1899. The "Banorte" trademark is a well-known mark in Mexico. The web domain name "banorte.com" was created in 1998.
It is a Forbes Global 2000 company, with total consolidated assets of approximately $80 billion, more than 30 billion dollars in assets under management, 12,500 employees and 950 branches. It is the only major bank in Mexico not owned by any foreign group.
It was established in 1889 as Banco Mercantil de Monterrey. In 1985 merged with Banco Regional del Norte to form Banco Mercantil del Norte (Banorte). In 1992, it was purchased from the Mexican Government by a group of investors headed by the Mexican businessman Roberto González Barrera. Over the next decade, Banorte transformed itself from a regional bank, based mainly in the northern Mexico, to one with nationwide coverage. In late 2001, Banorte acquired Bancrecer in US$125 million. Bancrecer had been taken over in 1999 by IPAB. Bancrecer had itself taken over another bank, Banco del Noroeste (Banoro), in 1997.
Banorte expanded their business lines to include leasing (Arrendadora Banorte) in 1990, and to warehousing and factoring services (Almacenadora Banorte and Factor Banorte) in 1991. In order to set up a financial group with full services Banorte wanted a securities company under its control, and Banorte acquired Casa de Bolsa Afin in July 1993. In 1997, Banorte established an alliance with the Italian insurance company Generali to offer insurance, pension funds, and Afore's services through their subsidiaries Afore Banorte-Generalli, Seguros Banorte-Generalli and Pensiones Banorte-Generalli.
Banorte has operations in New York (Banorte Securities) and Grand Cayman (Banorte Grand Cayman Branch).
Key numbers for fiscal year ending December 31, 2021 for Grupo Financiero Banorte:
- Total Assets: 1.6 trillion pesos (US$90 billion) Equity: 237 billion pesos (US$11 billion) Return on assets (ROA): 1.6%
- Return on average Equity (ROE): 15.3%
