MEXICO CITY -- American Express Co. said Friday it has formed a joint venture with Mexico's newly privatized banking giant Banco Nacional de Mexico, or Banamex, and will together issue a 'gold' credit card in Mexico.
'American Express and Banamex have formed a joint venture company in Mexico to issue a co-branded international American Express Gold Card,' both companies said in a statement.
'Additional products and services are expected to be announced at a later date. The new company will be called Banamsa,' the statement said.
Banamex, the nation's largest bank, was bought from the government last August for $3 billion by a group of investors led by the nation's largest stock brokerage house, Acciones y Valores de Mexico, or Accival.
Accival will own 51 percent of the new company and American Express Co. will own 49 percent in keeping with Mexican restrictions on foreign ownership. The new gold cards will be issued to qualified Banamex customers beginning March 30. A joint corporate card will also be issued.
Currently, the Banamex-Accival Financial Group has 50,000 Visa gold cards in the Mexican market and is distributing another 80,000, said group chairman Alfredo Harp Helu. American Express has more than 100,000 gold cards in the Mexican market, he said in a statement.
Customers will be served by Banamex and American Express in Mexico, and by the latter's worldwide customer network abroad. Both companies will continue to seperately issue their own credit cards in Mexico.
The joint venture was sparked, in part, by the current negotiations between Mexico, the United States and Canada to form the world's largest trading bloc with 360 million consumers and a combined economic output of some $6 trillion, said James D. Robinson III, chairman and chief executive officer of American Express.
'The strategic alliance we are announcing with Banamex today is consistent with the spirit of the free trade initiative,' he said in prepared remarks during the announcement in Mexico City Friday.
Mexican trade negotiators have reportedly been taking a hardline against opening the highly controlled financial services market to foreign companies before the end of the decade.
Banking analysts in Mexico have said the market here is unlikely to be opened before then because those purchasing the nation's reprivatized banks need time to recoup their considerable investments.
