Advancing tech services for customers. Boosting sustainability efforts. Joining a United Nations’ campaign to help refugees. Even sponsoring American football in Mexico City.
Those are but a few of the business highlights for Banorte as it celebrates another award-winning year – and prepares for even more in 2023.
“It’s been a rewarding run for Banorte as we’ve focused on increased digital transformation and global leadership,” said Banorte Chairman Carlos Hank González. “We’re dedicated to continuing these efforts and maximizing our community impact in Mexico.”
It closed out 2022 with a major announcement that the bank now allows its customers to make payments from their Google Wallet.
Through that secure and accessible means of payment, those with Banorte credit and debit cards can make contactless payments from their Android phones and Wear OS, a version of Google’s Android operating system for smartwatches and other wearables.
That new payment option marks another step by Banorte in enhancing customer access and delivering technology benefits, part of its accelerated customer-centric digital programs that earned it wide industry recognition in 2022.
Among the honors, Banorte was named “Bank of the Year 2022” in Mexico by international publication The Banker.
In receiving that honor, Banorte was recognized for its customer-friendly services and digital transformation initiatives, including the release of the upgraded Banorte Móvil app that allows users to access products and services directly through the platform.
The Banker also highlighted Banorte’s strategic partnership alliance with Google Cloud which strengthened its cybersecurity and corporate innovation efforts while maximizing artificial intelligence capabilities.
Banorte’s digitization efforts received additional recognition from critically acclaimed business magazine World Finance, which saluted Banorte as a digital champion, thanks to its hyper-personalized customer services.
For its ESG work, Banorte received the No. 1 ranking as “World’s Most Socially Responsible Bank” out of 750 other international institutions by Newsweek and global data firm Statista.
As a result of recent accomplishments, Banorte was added to the 2022 S&P Sustainability Yearbook for the first time.
Banorte’s dedication to community impact has been exemplified through its involvement in various programs promoting both financial inclusion and opportunity.
This year, it became a participant in the United Nations Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR) Integration Program. Through this partnership, Banorte offers digital banking services for refugees in Mexico, opening the doors for employment opportunities and upward mobility as they seek an improved quality of life.
The bank, an active supporter of sustainable financing, also joined the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), an industry-led initiative to develop a harmonized global standard to measure and disclose the greenhouse gas emissions of loans and investments.
Doing so enables financial institutions to set science-based targets and align their portfolios with the Paris Agreement, which sets out a global framework to avoid dangerous climate change by pursuing efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
On higher education, Fundación Banorte completed its sponsorship of the 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund that gave students in Mexico and the United States the opportunity to study abroad and access transformative educational opportunities in agriculture, economics and other subjects.
Among other achievements this year:
- Fitch Ratings, a leading provider of credit ratings for global capital markets, gave Operadora de Fondos Banorte, the bank’s asset management fund, the highest rating at a national scale.
- LatinFinance, the renowned publication specializing in capital markets, finance and economies in the region, awarded Banorte the prize for “Best Infrastructure Financing of the Year in Mexico” for the Mante-Ocampo-Tula Highway project, in which Banorte acted as lead structuring bank and syndication agent.
- Banorte received a Google Cloud Financial Services 2021 Customer Award, honoring the bank for its innovative thinking, technical excellence and digital transformation. The recognition reflects the results of its alliance with Google Cloud, which has provided data-driven efficiencies, increased customer access to services and strengthened analytics capabilities.
- Maya – Banorte’s digital assistant that makes banking easier for customers – was recognized as one of the best banking innovations worldwide in the 2021 Analytics and Artificial Intelligence category by the European Finance Management Association (EFMA) and Accenture.
Banorte also was a leading Mexican corporate sponsor of the NFL matchup in November between the San Francisco 49ers and the Arizona Cardinals, who played in Mexico City’s historic Azteca Stadium in the internationally televised Monday Night Football.
It marked another of Banorte’s tier-one sports sponsorship that has included the Mexican National Team in soccer, the Mexico City Grand Prix, a Formula One Mexican driver and the previous NFL game in Mexico City three years ago.
“As we look ahead, we know the key to global leadership is investing in our community,” Carlos Hank González said. “We can do this through increased digitization, providing access to opportunity and by ensuring we’re doing our part to contribute to a healthier shared world. We are just getting started.”