On October 8, 2008, the Foreign Exchange Commission, made up of officials from the Ministry of Finance and Banco de México, and which is responsible for Mexico's foreign exchange policy, announced the following actions to counter the prevailing uncertainty and lack of liquidity in the foreign exchange market:

From October 9, and until further notice, USD 400 million will be auctioned daily (for more details, see circular 47/2008). This daily amount was adjusted to USD 300 million in March 9, 2009, and then readjusted to USD 250 million in June 9, 2009 (for further details, see circular 5/2009, and circular 14/2009).

On April 9, 2010, the Foreign Exchange Commission announced that this auction mechanism would be suspended in April 12, 2010 (see press release).

On November 29, 2011, in order to preserve the orderly functioning of the foreign exchange market, the Foreign Exchange Commission announced that the dollar purchases through the put options mechanism would be temporarily suspended (see press release and dollar purchases through the put options mechanism) and that preventive daily auctions would be carried out, USD 400 million through USD auctions with a minimum price, to provide liquidity to the foreign exchange market if necessary.

On April 8, 2013, since conditions in both the international and domestic financial markets indicated that exchange rate volatility was reduced, the Foreign Exchange Commission decided to suspend this mechanism starting in April 9, 2013 (see press release).

The following summarizes the most important details of how the auction mechanism operates. For further details, see circular 23/2011.

• The USD auction is carried out in three different time slots: from 9.00.00 a.m. to 9.05.00 a.m. for the first auction; from 12.00.00 a.m. to 12.05.00 a.m. for the second auction; and, from 3.00.00 p.m. to 3.05.00 p.m. for the third auction.
• If the auctions of the preceding business day do not result in any allotment, the minimum price for the dollar auction will be set at 1.02 times the Mexican peso, as determined by the FIX of the preceding business day.
• If the auctions of the preceding business day result in an allotment, the minimum price for the dollar auction will be set at 1.02 times the weighted average price of the previous business day's allotment.
• The minimum bid price will always be the same for the three auctions.
• Any daily amount not allotted is not cumulative.
• The sum of the allotted amounts of the three auctions must not surpass USD 400 million.

See historical series on US dollar auctions with a minimum price