Fobaproa (Fondo Bancario de Protección al Ahorro; "Savings Protection Banking Fund", in Spanish) was a contingencies fund created in 1990 by the Mexican government, led by then dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to attempt to resolve liquidity problems of the banking system. The contingencies fund was applied in 1995 during the Mexican peso crisis to protect Mexican banks. In 1998, it was replaced by Instituto para la Protección al Ahorro Bancario (Bank Savings Protection Institute), Mexico's current deposit insurance agency. In the years following the peso crisis, Fobaproa and its resulting debt has become a subject of controversy in Mexican politics. Beneficiaries of the fund were companies favored by the country's political leadership and were implicated in a number of corruption cases. The management of the Fobaproa funds drew significant criticism by Mexico's then two main opposition parties, the Party of the Democratic Revolution and the National Action Party, where it represented a prominent issue during the 2000 Mexican general election. Background In 1982, at the end of the presidency of José López Portillo (December 1976–December 1982) the government found itself unable to meet demands for United States dollars and devaluated the peso from a value of 26 to 47 pesos per dollar. A consequence was an extremely high default debt. The López Portillo administration then decided to nationalize the banking system on September 1 of the same year, paying 3 trillion pesos (approximately 63 billion dollars at 47 pesos/dollar exchange rate) to acquire public and private credit institutions who had an accumulated debt of 25 billion dollars. The following year, in the middle of an economic crisis, president Miguel de la Madrid (December 1982–December 1988) created the FICORCA (Fideicomiso de Cobertura de Riesgo Cambiario or "Exchange risk coverage fund") financed by a loan that would also finance the fiscal deficit, the external debt and the economic activity of the country. This fund saved twenty of the largest companies of the country from bankruptcy; these companies owed 12 billion dollars through notes with the Banco de México. On November 10, 1986, the FONAPRE (Fondo de Apoyo Preventivo a las Instituciones de Banca Múltiple or "Fund of preventive support to banking institutions") was founded to preserve the financial stability of banks, with the government having banks as trustees. By 1987, a parallel finance industry had been created with brokering firms and investment societies. To continue attracting investors, interest rates increased at