HSBC Mexico, S.A. is the principal operating company of Grupo Financiero HSBC, S.A. e C.V. is one of Mexico’s four largest banking and financial service companies, with 1,400 branches and 5,200 ATMs. HSBC purchased Banco Internacional, S.A. known as Bital, in November 2002, several years after Bital participated in the controversial Fobaproa, which rescued the nation's banks from the 1994 crisis, at the cost of the Mexican taxpayers.