Banamex doubles down on corporate and investment banking with René Pimentel amid cautious investment conditions
The bank is looking to rebuild its corporate and investment banking capabilities to compete for large companies at a time of high rates and slower momentum.
Banamex has appointed René Pimentel as Head of Corporate and Investment Banking, a move aimed at regaining ground in the large enterprise client segment following the separation of the businesses that operated under Citi in Mexico. According to the bank’s announcement, Pimentel will be tasked with designing the structure, strategic priorities, and service model for a unit that will consolidate lending, treasury, foreign trade, derivatives, and access to equity and debt capital markets.
The appointment comes as Mexican banking navigates a cycle in which companies are pairing selective investment with tighter liquidity management. In recent quarters, financing costs have remained high due to the persistence of restrictive rates, prompting many corporates to prioritize refinancing, hedging, and risk management over aggressive expansion. In that context, Banamex’s repositioning is meant to capture demand for end-to-end solutions and speed of execution—an advantage that often becomes more decisive when markets turn more volatile.
Banamex said the new division will seek to strengthen its presence among large corporates with a more robust offering, while maintaining standards for risk, profitability, and ethics. In practice, the challenge will be to combine technical depth—such as in loan syndications, structuring, and derivatives—with an operational and digital experience that reduces friction for corporate treasuries that now demand timelier reporting, tech integrations, and streamlined approval processes.
With 29 years in the financial system, Pimentel will be expected to lead not only the organizational build-out but also the commercial relaunch of a bank that, under Fernando Chico Pardo’s leadership, has reiterated its intent to modernize and gain traction through greater digitalization. The timing matters: Mexico remains deeply integrated with the United States, and the reshuffling of supply chains has spurred new industrial projects; however, turning investment plans into reality often comes with sophisticated needs for financing, hedging, and cross-border cash-flow management.
Competition for corporate clients: rates, risk, and nearshoring as the backdrop
The revival of a corporate and investment banking platform is taking place in a highly competitive market, where banks seek to differentiate themselves on pricing, balance-sheet capacity, market reach, and risk-management solutions. For many companies, the focus has been on securing revolving credit facilities, optimizing working capital, and hedging exposure to interest rates and exchange rates. At the same time, the narrative around relocating investment to Mexico has increased interest in financing for infrastructure, industrial parks, and projects tied to export manufacturing, though bottlenecks—energy, water, logistics, and regulatory certainty—remain and can influence the pace of lending and intermediaries’ appetite for risk.
In this environment, a corporate bank with markets capabilities can become more relevant: when volatility rises, demand grows for hedging instruments and for advice on issuing debt or raising capital when windows of opportunity open. For Banamex, success will hinge on execution: attracting specialized talent, strengthening risk governance, and rolling out digital tools that deepen relationships with treasury teams and CFO organizations that now compare offers in real time and demand transparency on costs and terms.
Looking ahead, Banamex’s strategy will be judged by its ability to translate this relaunch into market share and risk-adjusted profitability without compromising asset quality. In a Mexico with moderate growth, interest rates that still weigh on investment decisions, and an industrial opportunity competing with structural constraints, corporate banking is shaping up to be a field where execution and prudent management will make the difference.
