In 2002, Mexican businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego decided to create a banking institution focused on the country's underbanked segment.

In the same year, the bank signed an agreement with the National Workers' Housing Fund Institute (INFONAVIT) to provide mortgage services.

[1] After sponsoring the Mexican national football team in 2007, it ventured into the markets of Guatemala, Honduras and Argentina, and opened branches in Brazil and Peru the following year.

[7][8] In 2018 the institution ranked thirteenth on the BrandZTop 30 list of Mexico's most valuable brands compiled by the global data company Kantar Millward Brown with a value of 1.167 billion dollars.

Banco Azteca's business focus has been to serve the most underserved segments of the population, providing financial services to middle and lower income groups.

[2] According to Alejandro Valenzuela, CEO of Banco Azteca, the bank was "born as a popular institution" and "uses financial inclusion not as a rhetorical issue, but as a business model".

The executive also stated that the bank's vocation is to create opportunities for its clients to join the financial system, "reaching the lagging areas of the country".