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LATAM / Mexico · Updated 11 March 2026

Mexico's neobanks,
by CNBV licence class.

Mexico's fintech landscape is regulated, but the protection regime is unusually layered. Only Instituciones de Banca Múltiple (full banks) get IPAB cover. SOFIPOs sit under a smaller dedicated scheme (PROSOFIPO); IFPEs and SOFOM ER are CNBV-supervised but have no deposit insurance. Read the licence class before the marketing.

0IPAB-protected today
4CNBV-supervised total
UDI 400kIPAB ceiling (~MXN 3.5M)
Last verified11 March 2026
01 — The licence taxonomy

Four CNBV classes,
three protection regimes.

Under the 2018 Ley Fintech, Mexico's framework is one of the more granular in the region. The licence determines the protection scheme — and most fintech operators sit outside IPAB.

Banca Múltiple · Full bank
Banamex, BBVA MX, etc.Banking Law
IPAB-protectedUDI 400,000 / institution
CNBV + Banxico supervisionFull prudential
SOFIPO · Sociedad Financiera Popular
Nu MéxicoSOFIPO
PROSOFIPO ~UDI 25,000~MXN 220k
CNBV + CONDUSEFSmaller scheme
IFPE · Fintech wallet (Ley Fintech)
Mercado Pago MX, AlboIFPE
NOT IPAB / NOT PROSOFIPOSegregation only
CNBV-supervisedFiduciary trust
SOFOM ER · Non-deposit credit entity
KlarSOFOM ER
NOT a deposit classLending only
CNBV-registered AMLLimited supervision
Deposit protection LATAM-MX
Scheme
IPAB
Ceiling
UDI 400,000 (~MXN 3M)
Regulator
CNBV / Banco de México

Instituto para la Protección al Ahorro Bancario (IPAB) covers up to 400,000 UDIs per depositor per institution (~MXN 3M, indexed to inflation). Cover applies to full banks (instituciones de banca múltiple) only. SOFIPOs and IFPEs (Mexican fintech licences) are not IPAB members.

Primary source: https://www.gob.mx/ipab

03 — IPAB scope and the UDI question

Why MXN equivalents float year-on-year.

The Instituto para la Protección al Ahorro Bancario covers up to 400,000 UDIs per depositor per Banca Múltiple institution. UDIs (Unidades de Inversión) are an inflation-indexed unit published daily by Banco de México. Because the unit floats with CPI, the MXN-equivalent ceiling is not a fixed number — it drifts upward year on year, roughly tracking Mexican inflation.

As a working figure for 2026, 1 UDI ≈ MXN ~9, which puts the IPAB ceiling at ~MXN 3.5 million per depositor per institution. This is an indicative number — for a precise current value, look up the UDI on Banco de México's site or the institution's IPAB-cover disclosure. Do not memorise a specific peso figure; the inflation-indexing is the load-bearing fact.

The mass-market consumer fintechs in this ranking do not sit under the IPAB scheme. Nu México as a SOFIPO sits under PROSOFIPO, which has a meaningfully smaller per-depositor ceiling (around UDI 25,000, ~MXN 220k as of 2026). Mercado Pago Mexico and Albo as IFPEs sit under the Fintech Law's segregation rules — protected from the failure of the operator, but with no statutory deposit insurance. Klar as a SOFOM ER is a non-deposit-taking entity in the prudential sense, so the question does not arise — but neither do you have an interest-bearing deposit account with it.

04 — Verdict

If full IPAB cover matters, pick a Banca Múltiple.

For balances above PROSOFIPO's roughly-MXN-220k SOFIPO ceiling, the only way to access the full IPAB cover is at an Instituciones de Banca Múltiple — the incumbent banks (Banamex, BBVA México, Banorte) and, prospectively, Nu México once its banking-licence conversion completes. For everyday cards-and-CoDi spend within the consumer wallet ecosystem, Mercado Pago Mexico and Albo are reasonable wallet choices, but the IFPE licence class is a real consideration above ~MXN 50k. Klar's SOFOM ER model is a credit-card / lending product, not a deposit account, and should be evaluated on credit terms not on deposit-insurance grounds.