Overview
- The Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera and the Association of Banks of Mexico published the guide on Monday, May 25 to treat extortion as a predicate for illicit‑origin operations and give banks concrete detection rules.
- UIF analysis identified clear red flags tied to prison‑run schemes, including repeated transfer concepts, rapid splitting of funds into many accounts, and heavy use of mobile banking that made up roughly 70% of observed flows.
- Banks’ compliance officers have 60 days to present the guide to their internal committees and, after approval, 60 more days to implement the monitoring and reporting measures in their systems.
- Authorities say the rules are meant to accelerate suspicious‑activity reports and the freezing of suspect funds while bringing Mexican banks closer to international anti‑money‑laundering standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (GAFI).
- The guide responds to a long rise in extortion—an 82% increase over the past decade—and to sector pressure following 2025 U.S. Treasury sanctions that triggered tighter oversight of Mexican financial firms.