SPEI

Sistema de Pagos Electrónicos Interbancarios launched in 2004 and is run by Banco de México. Payments are addressed with a CLABE, a standardised 18-digit account number containing a bank code, a city code and a check digit, and money reaches the payee in seconds. It runs around the clock and accepts payments from banks and, for some years now, from regulated fintechs too.

The central bank has kept trying to turn SPEI into an alternative to cash at the till. CoDi, a QR scheme from 2019, barely got used, and its successor DiMo in 2023 let people pay to a phone number instead. Brazil's Pix pulled off the same trick within a year, which made the comparison awkward for Mexico.