Starting a business in Mexico: foreigner's guide (2026)

President Sheinbaum signed and published the National Law to Eliminate Bureaucratic Procedures, cutting federal business-related procedures from 342 to 151 and extinguishing CONAMER, transferring its functions to the Digital Transformation and Telecommunications Agency (ATDT). The law mandates a unified digital citizen portal (Llave MX) and standardises procedures across all three levels of government.

The World Bank announced it would permanently discontinue the Doing Business report — the primary cross-country metric used to pressure Mexico on business-start indicators — after an audit found data-integrity violations in the 2018 and 2020 editions. Mexico had ranked 60th of 190 in the final Doing Business 2020 report, with 'starting a business' as one of its weaker sub-indicators (66–90 days at that time).

The World Bank's Doing Business 2020 report placed Mexico 60th of 190 economies (second in Latin America after Chile), but noted that Mexico had failed to introduce any measurable business-climate improvements for the second consecutive year. The 'starting a business' sub-indicator remained weak, with costs and time well above OECD averages.

Mexico became one of the first countries in Latin America to enact a comprehensive Fintech Law (Ley para Regular las Instituciones de Tecnología Financiera), creating a licensing and regulatory-sandbox framework for crowdfunding platforms and electronic-money institutions under CNBV oversight. The law provided start-ups in financial services a defined, legal route to incorporation and operation that had not previously existed.

Congress reformed the Código de Comercio to require the Registro Público de Comercio (RPC) to operate via an automated federal computer programme under the Secretaría de Economía, with mandatory electronic pre-capture of registral acts and defined maximum response periods. The reform laid the technical foundation for later online incorporation portals (tuempresa.gob.mx) by making the commercial registry data a federal digital asset.

The Federal Executive published the agreement establishing the Sistema de Apertura Rápida de Empresas (SARE), entering into force 1 March 2002. SARE capped local-government procedures for low-risk businesses (covering 685 SCIAN activities) at 24–72 hours and one single office visit. Studies subsequently documented a direct 5% increase in new-business creation and 2.8% increase in employment in municipalities where it was implemented.

Mexico enacted the Ley General de Sociedades Mercantiles (LGSM), the comprehensive federal law governing formation, governance, and dissolution of all commercial companies, including Sociedades Anónimas and Sociedades de Responsabilidad Limitada. Still the bedrock statute for business formation today, it established mandatory notarial incorporation and Public Commerce Registry inscription — requirements that subsequent reforms have progressively softened or digitised.