Financial groups are financial intermediaries managed by a sole controlling entity. Article 7 of the Law to Regulate Financial Groups describes the circumstances under which a financial group is created:

“The groups referred to in this Law consist of a controlling company and some of the following financial entities: pawnbrokers, financial leasing companies, factoring companies, foreign exchange firms, bonding companies, insurance companies, Sofoles, brokerage firms, universal banks, as well as Siefores and Afores.

A financial group can be founded with at least two different types of the following financial entities: universal banks, brokerage firms, and insurance companies. If the group does not include two of these, it must have at least three different types of the financial entities mentioned in the preceding paragraph that are not Afores.”

Financial groups are supervised by the CNBV.