Mexico Watch: new financial regulator; tax income booms

Ministry taps new CNBV chief

Mexico's finance minister José Antonio González has named Bernardo González Rosas as head of financial sector regulator CNBV.

Known as a skilled technocrat, González Rosas has worked at the nation's bank savings protection agency (IPAB), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and development bank Bansefi.

He comes to the position, rising from the post of CNBV's regulatory policy vice president.

The new CNBV president studied at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, one of the nation's most prestigious higher learning institutions for economics, later earning a Master's in Public Policy at University of Georgetown.

Tax revenue booms in 2017

Mexico's finance ministry also reported Sunday the nation's tax agency (SAT) received tax revenue totaling 2.84tn pesos (US$153bn) in 2017, 4% more than projected in last year's federal budget.

The ministry added that the SAT reported 64.7mn active taxpayers in Mexico last year, a 13.9% increase from 2016, supported by the addition of 5.2mn formal jobs in the economy and 90,400 new businesses paying taxes in 2017.

Tax collection has steadily expanded in recent years, largely as a consequence of Mexico's 2014 fiscal reforms, a hallmark of President Enrique Peña Nieto's administration.

The higher tax revenue has also contributed strongly to Mexico's ability to absorb the 2015-2016 crash in oil prices.