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Banamex CEO Resigns After a Turbulent Year Wrought with Fraud
Javier Arrigunaga has resigned as chief executive officer of Grupo Financiero Banamex, Citigroup’s Mexican unit, Banamex’s chairman said.
“In light of the difficult challenges our franchise in Mexico has faced over the last year, Javier Arrigunaga feels it is the right time for new leadership,” Manuel Medina Mora said in a statement on Friday.
The bank’s chairman said Arrigunaga had worked tirelessly to grow the financial group and had succeeded in deepening relationships with Banamex’s customers and key stakeholders.
In late February, New York-based Citigroup said it discovered that Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico-based oil services company Oceanografia had fraudulently obtained some $400 million in loans from its Mexican subsidiary.
Oceanografia was subsequently seized by Mexico’s federal government and then granted bankruptcy protection.
In April, Arrigunaga said the fraud affecting the bank was “a costly and painful episode.”
A month later, Banamex fired 11 employees, including four managing directors, after an internal investigation revealed that their actions, or lack thereof, allowed the processing of loans backed by fraudulent invoices to occur.
The head of Banamex’s consumer banking division, Ernesto Torres Cantu, is to be named as Arrigunaga’s replacement and also will continue to serve in his current position.
Banamex, Mexico’s second-largest bank by assets, has 1,706 branches that serve more than 21 million customers.
Published in Latino Daily News
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