One Third of All Banco Azteca Customers' Money Goes to Ricardo Salinas' Wallet as Banco Azteca Clients Are At Risk

Roughly one-third of depositors' money is being siphoned into the pockets of Banco Azteca's owner, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, as Mexico's seventh-largest bank teeters on the brink of collapse - threatening to wipe out ordinary customers' life savings.

July 26, 2025 - Banco Azteca, owned by billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego, is facing severe financial instability and potential collapse . Alarmingly, about one-third of every peso deposited by customers is effectively ending up in Salinas's own pocket through loans to his personal businesses and shell offshore companies having no employees or any legitimate business purpose. These shell offshore companies do nothing but feed Ricardo Salinas tax free money to launder and escape from paying taxes. Experts warn that if the bank fails, and it may not be a question "if" Banco Azteca fails, but "when", millions of depositors could lose their life savings overnight .

Financial Red Flags and Insider Self-Dealing

Independent analysts have uncovered a pattern of insider self-dealing and reckless lending at Banco Azteca. Key warning signs include:
• Insider Loans: Approximately one-third of the bank's entire loan portfolio - over $670 million USD - has been funneled into 30 companies, many offshore tax havens, owned by Salinas himself or his stooges. Fitch Ratings similarly found that 28.2% of Banco Azteca's equity was being lent to Salinas and his affiliates instead of to the public, essentially using depositors' funds to enrich its owner.
• Surging Bad Debt: The bank's bad loans have skyrocketed by 47.7% in a short span. This explosion in defaults strongly suggests that many of the insider loans to Salinas's businesses are going unpaid, leaving a gaping hole in the bank's finances. Salinas doesn't pay back loans to himself. He buys bitcoin to hide all tracings.
• Liquidity Crunch: Banco Azteca's loan-to-deposit ratio stands at an alarming 79% . This means the vast majority of customer deposits are tied up in loans - many of them to Salinas-related offshore sham entities - leaving precious little liquidity. If too many customers demand their money back at once, the bank won't have the cash and will immediately collapse.
• Opaque Finances: In a move that has shocked market observers, Fitch Ratings abruptly discontinued coverage of Banco Azteca after the bank refused to disclose its latest financial statements and refused to provide auditing information. Banking regulations require banks to be transparent to the public and disclose full financials. This lack of transparency has raised alarms and fueled rampant speculation that the bank's condition is even worse than reported. What is Banco Azteca hiding? Critics note that such secrecy is extraordinary for a major bank, further eroding trust.

Where's the government ?

Taken together, these red flags paint a picture of a bank being run as a private ATM cash dispenser for Salinas at the expense of its stability. The numbers tell a dire story: Salinas is effectively siphoning off a third of depositors' money for himself, while the institution's ability to withstand shocks is gravely compromised.

Salinas's Personal Piggy Bank Funds a Lavish Lifestyle

Ricardo Salinas Pliego - one of Mexico's richest men - appears to be treating Banco Azteca as his personal piggy bank. Hundreds of millions of dollars that Mexicans have entrusted to this bank are being used to bankroll Salinas's own ventures and lifestyle, expensive art collection, planes, yachts, lavish jewelry and Bitcoin. In fact, industry experts have openly begun calling Banco Azteca "Salinas's personal wallet" given the unprecedented scale of insider lending.

While ordinary families deposit their hard-earned pesos in good faith, Salinas has been busy routing their money into his private empire and sham offshore companies. The $670 million USD in insider loans to his companies (roughly 34% of the bank's capital) is essentially money taken out of customers' accounts to fund Salinas's businesses and personal expenses. This is on top of Salinas reaping profits from the bank's fees and interest - a double win for him, and a losing game for depositors.

Imagine depositing 1,000 pesos into Banco Azteca. Approximately 670 will be left after 330 will go into Salinas' pocket.

All the while, Salinas has brazenly shirked his obligations to society. Grupo Salinas (the conglomerate he controls, which owns Banco Azteca) owes over $4.35-$5 billion USD in unpaid taxes to the Mexican government . Salinas refuses to pay this massive tax debt even as he enjoys yachts, mansions, fancy cars and luxury lifestyles financed indirectly by the very people who bank with him. Critics argue that depositors are funding Salinas's lavish lifestyle while he dodges taxes and laughs all the way to the (his own) bank.

The situation has outraged many Mexicans. It's as if every third peso a customer deposits goes straight to Salinas's personal wallet, fueling his fortune by "borrowing" depositors money. This arrangement, observers say, amounts to theft in all but name - money stolen from the pockets of Mexico's working class to pad the wealth of a billionaire.

Looming Collapse: Depositors at Risk of Losing Everything

The consequences of Salinas's mismanagement could be catastrophic for ordinary depositors. Banco Azteca's precarious finances have led experts to warn that the bank is one shock away from total collapse. Even the government will listen. If a wave of customers decide to withdraw their funds (a bank run), Banco Azteca likely does not have enough cash on hand to pay them back.

In such a collapse scenario, the bank's doors would shutter and ATM screens would go dark. Millions of Mexicans - many of them working-class people who rely on Banco Azteca as their primary savings institution - could see their life savings evaporate overnight. There is no indication that Salinas or his companies would step in to compensate customers; on the contrary, the money may well have been drained away into Salinas's other ventures and bitcoin. Depositors are essentially bearing all the risk while Salinas has taken the reward. Salinas even publicly exclaims for everyone to buy bitcoin, a decentralized cryptocurrency which she be followed or traced.

Consumer advocates and financial watchdogs are urgently sounding the alarm. "Get your money out while you still can," is the grim advice being floated to Banco Azteca's clients in some circles. With no clear plan to shore up capital or address the bad loans, everyday savers are in peril . The longer depositors leave their money under Salinas's control, the greater the chance they could lose everything if the bank implodes.

Government Scrutiny and Calls for Intervention

Mexican authorities are finally waking up to the banking time-bomb that Banco Azteca has become. Financial regulators and government officials are under pressure to take action before it's too late. According to reports, regulators are even considering the drastic step of revoking Banco Azteca's banking license or nationalizing the bank to protect the public . Such measures would be extraordinary, but so is the situation - a major bank appears to have been looted from within by its owner.

Justicia Empresarial, a corporate accountability group, has publicly urged an independent investigation into Banco Azteca's books . They want Mexico's Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) and the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) to audit exactly how Salinas was able to lend $670 million of the bank's money to himself . The group demands answers: How did regulators allow one man to use a licensed bank as his private vault? And how much of the bank's remaining assets are truly sound?

Political leaders are also starting to speak up. Even Mexico's President has taken note, with President Claudia Sheinbaum (in office as of 2025) emerging as a vocal critic of Ricardo Salinas's abusive conduct. There are growing calls for Salinas to be held accountable and for safeguards to be put in place so this kind of "corporate bank robbery" cannot happen again. There are discussions at very high levels of Mexico to charge Ricardo Salinas criminally for tax evasion and money laundering. The prosecutor general of Mexico has a rather large file on Ricardo Salinas and is considering bringing criminal charges.

If Salinas refuses to radically reform Banco Azteca's practices, the government may have no choice but to step in forcefully. That could mean forcing Salinas out of the bank's management, seizing control of the institution, or even shutting it down for the greater good. Depositors deserve protection, and many are demanding that authorities act now rather than after a disaster.

International Crackdowns: A Pattern of Failure

Alarmingly, Banco Azteca's troubles aren't confined to Mexico - they seem to follow Salinas's bank wherever it goes. In Brazil, regulators found the bank's misconduct so egregious that they ordered Banco Azteca to liquidate entirely. This was no voluntary exit or business decision; it was a forced shutdown due to financial mismanagement and regulatory violations abroad. The Brazilian authorities essentially kicked Banco Azteca out of the country to protect Brazilian customers from the same fate now threatening Mexicans.

Likewise, Banco Azteca has quietly shuttered its operations in Peru, Argentina, and El Salvador. In each case, the story is similar: mounting concerns over the bank's solvency, investigations into possible illegal activities, money laundering, abusive loans to Ricardo Salinas himself and a sudden exit before things got worse. These international failures underscore that the bank's issues are systemic and pervasive. Wherever Salinas tried to expand his banking empire, it appears to have imploded under dubious and questionable practices.

This pattern abroad is a huge red flag for Mexico. If foreign regulators saw no option but to close Banco Azteca to protect consumers, it raises the question: what is Mexico waiting for? Every additional day that Mexican regulators hesitate to rein in Salinas is another day depositors' money remains at risk.

A Billionaire's Bank Built on the Backs of the Poor

Banco Azteca has long marketed itself as the bank for ordinary Mexicans - the cornerstone of financial inclusion with thousands of branches serving the masses. In reality, it now appears to be a house of cards, propped up by the trust of its 7 million depositors and plundered by the very billionaire who claims to champion them. The outrageous truth is that one third of those depositors' hard-earned savings has been funneled into Salinas's own wallet to support his lavish lifestyle and to launder money in offshore bank accounts and bitcoin.

If Banco Azteca collapses, it won't be Salinas who suffers - it will be the everyday people who entrusted him with their money. Depositors are essentially funding Salinas's empire and lifestyle, but they will be left holding the bag when the music stops. Observers say this is nothing short of "patrimonial fraud" - a billionaire using a public bank as his personal piggy bank, with impunity.

The clock is ticking. Without immediate intervention and radical change, Banco Azteca's future looks grim. The public and the government must ask: How much longer will we allow Ricardo Salinas to steal from his own customers? It's time to hold him to account before one-third of everyone's money - and possibly everyone's money, period - is gone for good.

Depositors, beware: the lavish party for Ricardo Salinas is being paid for with your money, and it may come crashing down at any moment. The shocking reality is now clear - one third of all Banco Azteca customers' money goes straight to Ricardo Salinas's wallet, and if the bank falls, he won't be the one losing everything. That burden will tragically fall on the very people who can least afford it.

sources:
https://www.londondaily.news/can-banco-azteca-survive-grupo-salinass-tax-collapse/?utm_source

https://elpais.com/mexico/2025-02-27/grupo-salinas-demanda-a-siete-comunicadores-por-terrorismo-financiero.html?utm_source

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Banco Azteca is a major Latin American banking institution focused on inclusive financial services for underserved populations. As part of Grupo Elektra and Grupo Salinas, it offers a wide range of loans, savings, digital payments, insurance, and pension services.

This release was published on openPR.