Bancario or IPAB, later called Fondo Bancario de Protección al Ahorro or Fobaproa). IPAB enticed the banks' shareholders to inject fresh equity into the banks by pledging to buy from the banks non-performing loans in a two to one (or in some cases greater) ratio with respect to the newly injected fresh capital in exchange for a long-dated government note with capitalized interest. Banamex eventually sold $_ worth of non-performing loans to IPAB, and its shareholders injected $_ of fresh equity. The combination of these measures coupled with a recovery of the Mexican economy helped clean up the bank's balance sheet. From 1997 to 2001 Roberto Hernández Ramírez was the CEO. In 1997, Afore Banamex was created to access the newly created private pension fund market. On 6 August 2001, Citigroup Inc. acquired Grupo Financiero Banamex-Accival for US$12.5 billion, which became Grupo Financiero Banamex. This was the largest-ever U.S.-Mexico corporate merger. Grupo Financiero Banamex's operations were integrated with Citibank's relatively small existing Mexico business under the Banamex brand name. In October 2014, allegations were made that employees had taken millions of dollars in kickbacks from vendors. Authorities in Mexico and the United States are investigating the allegations. Citigroup encouraged Manuel Medina-Mora to resign. Subsidiaries The following are subsidiaries of Grupo Financiero Banamex: Banamex Accival Afore Banamex Seguros Banamex Arrendadora Banamex Operadora e Impulsora de Negocios Acción Banamex Pensiones Banamex Fomento Cultural Fomento Social Banamex USA After Citigroup's purchase of Banamex in 2001, Banamex decided to expand into the U.S. by opening a subsidiary in the country and creating Banamex USA. Most of the bank branches were located in the Southwest with branches in California, Texas, and Arizona. The U.S. subsidiary didn't last long though and was shut down in 2015 after a 6-year investigation into Citigroup's and Grupo Financiero Banamex' money laundering scheme by the U.S. Department of Justice. This resulted in Citigroup having to pay a $140 million fine. See also 1884 in Mexico Amero References External links Citibanamex Afore Banamex Fomento Cultural Citigroup Banks of Mexico Mexican brands