ABSTRACT
Among all the reforms to the financial system implemented under President Salinas, the privatisation of the commercial banks is the most representative case of a state-engineered change. The dominant ideas underlying the widespread trend towards privatisation, are grouped into two main categories: economic efficiency and balanced public finances. John Vickers and George Yarrow (1988) produced the most important and comprehensive economic study of privatisation. They approached the issue of ownership through the notion of the agency problem. The nationalisation of the commercial banks back in 1982 was the response of President López Portillo to the lack of co-operation from the business elite to overcome the increasing financial difficulties of the state. The banks' privatisation was a state engineered change motivated by the new international consensus and implemented by President Salinas's economic team. Corruption scandals support the view that the economic goals of the banks' privatisation were subordinated to political and personal ambitions.
