Mexico now has a law of its own for digital payments. The Ley de Economía Digital para Pagos Digitales y Electrónicos (Digital Economy Law for Digital and Electronic Payments) was published in the evening edition of the federal gazette on 4 November 2026 (Diario Oficial de la Federación, Edición Vespertina), and under its first transitional provision it applies from the day after publication, so it has been in force since 5 November 2026. Congress passed it on 20 October, and President Claudia Sheinbaum signed it on 4 November.
If you are a foreigner living in Mexico or planning the move, three points matter. First, the CURP Digital, the digital version of Mexico's population registry number, becomes a recognised proof of identity when you open an account through digital channels. Second, the finance ministry may name sectors in which digital payment can be the only accepted means: that list has been announced but has not yet been published. Third, the central bank, Banxico, gets a statutory mandate to regulate account levels and QR payments so that more people can manage without cash.
Mexico has not abolished cash. What matters are three questions: what changes, when it changes and what you can do now.
What the law says
The law is short: 22 articles and five transitional provisions. Its purpose is set out in Article 1: to promote the adoption and use of digital and electronic means of payment throughout the country. It sits alongside the existing banking, commercial and civil legislation and does not replace it (Article 3).
It is built around four themes:
What counts as a digital means of payment
Article 2 defines the term broadly. Medios de Pago Digitales y Electrónicos include QR codes and NFC devices used to pay, debit and credit cards, bank transfers including direct debit (domiciliación), and any other device, card or interface that can be used to pay or move money. The authorities can recognise further means of payment by regulation.
The law does not introduce a central bank digital currency or a "digital peso". The word does not appear in the text. It is about the means of payment that already exist, and about making sure they are accepted everywhere.
Cash stays legal, just not everywhere
The most important everyday question: can you still pay cash in Mexico? Yes. The law contains no general ban on cash. Article 11 says that sellers of goods and services may introduce digital means of payment, not that they must.
The lever is in Article 13. Under it, the finance ministry, the SHCP (Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público), determines the strategic sectors and relevant activities in which accepting digital payment can be the only form of payment. The competent sector authorities then set out how this works in each industry, and they may set transition periods for the gradual move from cash to digital payment (Article 14).
The timetable is in the transitional provisions:
The list is still to come. Up to 9 November 2026 the finance ministry had published no such determination in the gazette; I checked the editions from 5 to 9 November. The law itself does not say which industries will be affected. Anything circulating about that today is speculation.
Two safeguards are already written into the law. If digital payment fails because of a disruption, such as a power cut, a network outage or a system fault, payment in cash or by cheque is allowed (Article 15). And a sector that will accept only digital payments in future may not rely permanently or repeatedly on such disruptions to get round its obligations (Article 16).
In practice this means: if you live in Mexico, expect that over the coming months certain areas will work only with a card or an account. A working means of payment that is accepted in Mexico becomes more important than before.
CURP Digital: what it means for foreigners
The CURP (Clave Única de Registro de Población) is Mexico's 18-character population registry number. Under Article 91 of the General Population Law (Ley General de Población) it is the single source of identity for Mexican nationals and for foreigners who are lawfully staying in the country. Under Articles 87 and 90 of the same law, foreigners are recorded in the catalogue of foreigners resident in Mexico, which is fed from the interior ministry's migration data.
Since the reform of 16 July 2025, the CURP can contain fingerprints and a photograph and is then an official identity document (Article 91 Bis), on paper and in digital form. The digital version is the responsibility of the Agency for Digital Transformation and Telecommunications (Article 91 Quinquies). Biometric data is only taken with the person's consent.
The new payments law builds on this:
For you as a foreigner, it follows that the CURP Digital is an option, not an obligation. Your passport and your Mexican residence card remain official identity documents. What is new is that a bank opening accounts through an app or online may not refuse the CURP Digital if you present it.
What the law does not regulate: which documents a bank asks for on top. The customer due diligence duties remain in the regulations under Article 115 of the Banking Law, and the new law changes nothing there. Whether a bank opens an account for you without a residence card or without the RFC tax number is still its decision under those rules and its own practice.
The order I describe in the guide to Mexican residency therefore still makes sense: first the residence card, with it the CURP, then the account. How the route to the card works, which proof the consulate asks for and what the visa fees from 2027 are set to cost is covered in those articles.
Expediente Digital Ciudadano and Llave MX
The second trust mechanism is the Expediente Digital Ciudadano, the citizen's digital file. It is governed by the National Law to Eliminate Bureaucratic Procedures (Ley Nacional para Eliminar Trámites Burocráticos) of 16 July 2025: it is the collection of a person's digital documents that public bodies can use for their procedures. Under Article 78 of that law, authorities may no longer ask you for documents that are already in the file.
The new payments law opens this file to banks:
Access to the file runs through Llave MX, the state's central login. The law to eliminate bureaucratic procedures defines Llave MX as a mechanism for authentication and identification in digital media, linked to the CURP (Article 3, section XVIII), and it governs unlocking the file through Llave MX in Article 70. Without a CURP, you cannot reach these tools either. Here too, for foreigners the CURP is tied to a lawful stay.
Account levels: what Banxico may regulate
Mexican current accounts (cuentas de depósito a la vista) are divided into levels. The fewer documents a bank requires at opening, the lower the limits on how much money may flow into the account each month. The limits are expressed in UDIS, an inflation-linked unit of account.
Article 19 of the new law expressly allows the central bank to regulate these levels, to introduce programmes for transfers, to standardise how banking apps work and, together with the banking supervisor CNBV, to require card terminals to accept QR code payments to the Banxico standard as well.
Banxico had already moved in the summer. With Circular 11/2026 of 16 June 2026 (gazette of 17 June) there are five levels instead of four. The new one is level 2 Bis: at most 15,000 UDIS of deposits per calendar month, of which at most 3,000 UDIS in cash. At the UDI value of 8.895396 pesos that the gazette reports for 9 November 2026, that comes to about 133,400 pesos a month, of which about 26,700 pesos in cash.
The catch for foreigners sits in the same sentence: level 2 Bis accounts may be opened only by Mexican nationals resident in Mexico. As a foreigner, you are left with the other levels. Under the same circular, accounts at levels 2, 3 and 4 get at least one CLABE, the 18-digit account number for transfers. Level 4 is the full account without a monthly cap; the documents required for it follow the regulations under Article 115 of the Banking Law.
For your planning, this means: if you want to pay rent, utilities and daily life digitally in Mexico, you will usually need an account at one of the higher levels. That requires full customer due diligence, and a residence permit is the usual way to get there.
Authorities, card terminals and QR codes
The law is not aimed only at banks and shops. Article 10 obliges authorities at all three levels of government, federal, state and municipal, to accept digital means of payment for their procedures and services. For you, that means fees and charges at government offices should be payable by card or transfer. The law sets no deadline by which each office must have switched over.
Article 12 lists what providers and authorities do when they introduce digital payment: provide the necessary infrastructure, tell customers which means of payment they accept, and fix disruptions. Article 22 obliges authorities to use the Agency's digital tools: the CURP Digital, the Expediente Digital Ciudadano, the national digital investment window (Ventanilla Digital Nacional de Inversiones) and the platform for commercial establishments.
If you run a small business in Mexico, a holiday rental or a café for example, the point about QR codes at card terminals is worth watching. Once Banxico and the CNBV have issued the rules, terminals that take card payments are also meant to accept QR payments. Whether your industry will be one of the sectors where digital payment becomes mandatory depends on the announced list.
What the law does not change
Some questions come up quickly on this subject, and the text of the law answers them clearly:
The Mexican law does not touch your tax position at home. What your home country keeps taxing once you live in Mexico depends on where you come from:
What you can do now
If you already live in Mexico and hold a residence card, check that your CURP is recorded correctly in the registry, because Llave MX and the CURP Digital both depend on it. Keep a small cash reserve for disruptions, since that is exactly what Article 15 expressly allows cash payment for. And keep an eye on the gazette for the announced list of sectors.
If you are planning the move, the law shifts the weights: a Mexican account matters more for daily life, and the way to it almost always runs through the residence permit and the CURP. How costs, daily life and banking fit together after arrival is covered in my article on moving to Mexico.
If you want to prepare your residence permit properly, you will find our support for temporary residence in Mexico and for permanent residence (Residente Permanente). Both are the basis for the CURP, the account and so for everything the new law makes possible digitally.
What happens next
The timetable follows from the transitional provisions. Within 15 business days of 5 November 2026 the finance ministry must name the sectors in which digital payment can become the only form of payment. After that, the sector authorities have 15 business days for the rules in each industry, with deadlines for the transition. In parallel, Banxico can further shape the account levels and the QR standard, as Article 19 provides.
Until the list of sectors appears in the gazette, nothing changes at the till. What has already changed: since 5 November, the CURP Digital and the citizen's digital file are legally recognised ways to open an account. If you are a foreigner with a residence card, and therefore a CURP, you can use them.
Carpe Diem. Life is short and fleeting. One shot. Make it count.