SPEI
The explosive growth of Mexico's main electronic payment system.
During the first 11 months of 2024, total SPEI transactions in Mexico soared to an impressive 4.5 billion operations. This translates to a staggering average of over 156 transactions per second—an increase of 38% compared to 2023 and seven times the volume recorded in 2019.
Historically, December has accounted for approximately 10% of the annual transaction volume over the past three years. If this trend holds, 2024 is on track to surpass 5 billion operations within a single year—a fivefold increase compared to 2020.
Adjusting for the missing December data, this could amount to over $325 trillion pesos in transfers. To put this massive figure into perspective:
It is 83 times—yes, eighty-three times—the total value traded in the cash equities market of the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV).
It’s almost 10 times Mexico’s GDP (as of 2024).
The daily volume processed is roughly the same as WALMEX’s 2023 annual revenues.
According to the central bank, this translates to an average of approximately $65,000 pesos per transfer—a figure that is 66% lower than in 2020.
Reflecting on the evolution of the SPEI network and its integration into daily life, it’s remarkable to consider that in 2010, the average SPEI transfer was close to $1.8 million pesos.
The previous figures showcases the important increase of “retail” transactions in the system. In fact, just during the first 11 months of 2024, there were more than 327 million transactions in the country below the $50 peso threshold — implying $8.9 billion pesos of transactional value for this type of operations.
A clearer picture of the retail adoption of this product is reflected in the following chart were we can see how the volume of transactions has multiplied itself, in some cases, by more than 10 times.