Mexico to operate digital currency in 2025

Mexico will begin to operate a digital currency issued by the Central Bank of Mexico (Banxico) in 2025, the bank's Governor Victoria Rodriguez Ceja announced Thursday.

The digital currency will seek to generate means of payment aimed at financial inclusion; expand options for fast, secure, efficient and interoperable payments; and implement competitive features to payment methods, she said before the Senate Finance Committee.

"We estimate that the final operation process will take about three years and will be aimed at banked and unbanked people, expanding payment possibilities," she explained.

She also said that the digital currency will comply with three basic characteristics: a means of payment, a unit of account and a store of value, and will coexist with physical bills and coins circulating across the country.

Banxico announced plans for a digital currency two years ago.