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Thursday, June 9, 2011

Lesson in Mexico's Monetary Policy: Part 2

Mexico does not maintain foreign-exchange (forex) restrictions. Capital moves freely across the country's borders. Any forex policy changes require approval by the Exchange Rate Commission, composed of officials from the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (Secretaria de Hacienda y Credito Publico -- SHCP) and Banco de Mexico.

Money-laundering regulations -- enacted since 1996 -- have improved scrutiny of large transactions. Rules require financial institutions (banks, credit unions, brokerage houses, exchange houses and "nonbank" banks) to report "suspicious" transactions to authorities within 20 working days. On a quarterly basis, financial institutions must also submit reports on transactions of monetary instruments with a value equal to or exceeding US$10,000. Nonetheless, money-laundering still remains a problem in Mexico, owing to lax enforcement and a lack of resources and co-ordination among the government bodies responsible for investigating and prosecuting money-laundering cases.

Source: Economist Intelligence Unit

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