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Explainer
What are SPEI and CLABE?
SPEI is the interbank electronic payment system that Banco de México administers and operates. It moves Mexican pesos between accounts at different financial institutions inside Mexico. CLABE is the 18-digit standardised key that identifies the payee account. Neither is a card network, and neither is Brazil’s Pix.
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Reviewed 14 October 2026
What is SPEI?
Banxico’s SPEI note says the Sistema de Pagos Electrónicos Interbancarios lets participants and indirect participants send and receive electronic transfers, in national currency, between accounts at different financial institutions in Mexico, for their own account or for customers. It replaced SPEUA.
The English page describes SPEI as a system developed and operated by Banco de México that can complete electronic payments in seconds. The rulebook includes Circular 14/2017. Banxico charges participants a system fee; that is not a published retail tariff for end users. This page invents no customer fees or daily limits.
What is a CLABE?
Banxico’s transfer pages call the 18-digit identifier a CLABE (Standardized Bank Code / Clave Bancaria Estandarizada). Circular 14/2017 uses “Clave Básica Estandarizada” and requires participants to assign a distinct CLABE to each eligible customer account. A CLABE identifies an account, not an RFC or a CURP.
The same Banxico pages also list a 16-digit debit, e-money or credit-card number, or a 10-digit mobile number linked to the account. Which identifier your institution accepts in its app follows that app and today’s Banxico text.
How do you send a SPEI transfer?
The MI SPEI transfer page says you need an account at a SPEI participant or indirect participant, that institution’s official app or website, and the payee’s account identifier. The transfer leaves your account through that channel and credits a person or firm at another institution.
Banxico publishes participating institutions and a status-enquiry module. This site does not connect to SPEI and cannot trace a transfer. The SWIFT pages decode international BICs, not CLABEs.
How does SPEI differ from Pix and from cards?
SPEI is a Mexican domestic interbank system. Pix is Brazil’s Central Bank instant-payment arrangement. Keys, participants, currency and supervisor all differ. A Pix key cannot collect SPEI funds, and a CLABE is not a Pix key.
Using a debit-card number on SPEI is still an account transfer. It is not card-scheme authorisation and does not run 3D Secure. This page does not compare unsourced settlement times or fees.
Questions and answers
- Is a CLABE a card number?
- No. A CLABE is an 18-digit account identifier. Banxico also allows a 16-digit card number or a 10-digit mobile number on some transfers; those are different identifiers.
- Can I receive SPEI without a Mexican account?
- Banxico requires an account at a participant or indirect participant. This page does not guarantee onboarding.
- What is the SPEI fee?
- Banxico charges participants for system use. What you pay your own institution follows that institution’s disclosure. This page does not invent a retail price.
Official pages to verify
Sources and review
Facts follow Banxico’s SPEI information and transfer pages, the English SPEI page, and the CLABE definition in Circular 14/2017. Reviewed 14 October 2026.