PUERTO VALLARTA : Bankers Tally It Up

Mexican bankers, already feeling the pinch of a domestic shakeout and adjusting to the prospect of international competition, will meet for three days starting Sunday in this Pacific coastal resort.

International finance and the North American Free Trade Agreement are prominent topics on the agenda as bankers face competition from outsiders for the first time in 55 years. NAFTA would allow U.S. and Canadian banks to gradually expand their operations in the Mexican market, which has been closed to foreign bankers since the 1930s.

Competition is heating up domestically among the recently privatized banks.