Mexico's BBVA Bancomer plans no mergers

By Noel Randewich and Monica Medel

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's BBVA Bancomer financial group, owned by Spain's BBVA, believes Mexico's banking market is growing so fast it has no need to make acquisitions, Chief Executive Jaime Guardiola said on Wednesday.

BBVA Bancomer is ramping up lending for mortgages and other private credit and expects credit expansion to continue through the July presidential elections, Guardiola said at the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit in Mexico City.

"There is no plan to make acquisitions in Mexico," Guardiola said.

BBVA Bancomer accounts for a bit more than a third of parent bank BBVA's (BBVA.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) bottom line, and Guardiola said that proportion is sure to increase since the bank's growth is faster in Mexico than in Spain.

Consumer lending in Mexico has surged in recent years amid declining interest rates and campaigns by banks to increase their loan portfolios by offering more credit cards, personal loans and mortgages.

Last week, Guardiola told Reuters he expects BBVA Bancomer's private lending to increase by 30 percent this year.

Leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has a hefty lead in opinion polls, and while many investors are wary of his policies, so far most do not expect the election to cause much economic volatility.

Recent losses in the peso's MEX01 <MXN=> value have been caused more by changes in the U.S. interest rate outlook than by political factors in Mexico, analysts say.  Continued...