A group of Mexican opposition senators wants the country's supreme court to review Citigroup's ownership of Banamex, Mexico’s second largest bank. They say the US government's bailout of Citi has violated Mexican law, which prohibits foreign government ownership of stakes in Mexican banks. In March the Mexican Ministry of Finance ruled that Banamex’s status was acceptable because the US government’s stake in Citi was circumstantial and transitory; the senators want the supreme court to decide whether that ruling is constitutional.

The court is set to decide this week whether to take the case. A ruling against Citi could also affect the Mexican subsidiaries of AIG, Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon and Royal Bank of Scotland, according to the Financial Times.

Banamex was formed in 1884 by a merger of two Mexican banks. It was nationalised in 1982, privatised in 1991, bailed out by the state in 1995 and sold to Citi for $12.5bn in 2001. It made a net profit of  9.43bn pesos ($750m) in the first half of 2009.

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