Mexico’s Reglas de Carácter General a que se refiere la LFPIORPI are the administrative rules issued by the Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público for the Federal Law for the Prevention and Identification of Operations with Illicit Proceeds. The rules were published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación on Aug. 23, 2013, took effect on Sept. 1, 2013, and remain in force as part of Mexico’s AML framework for “Actividades Vulnerables,” including the virtual asset activity added to the law.
The rules do not operate as a standalone crypto statute. They provide the operational layer for the LFPIORPI and its Reglamento: registration, customer identification, notices and reports, electronic filing through the SAT prevention portal, record handling, use of designated compliance representatives, and procedures for specific vulnerable activities. It is therefore best categorized as a regulation and AML/CFT implementation instrument rather than a market-access license or investor-protection regime.
Key provisions of the LFPIORPI General Rules
Administrative scope
The rules set minimum measures and procedures for persons that carry out vulnerable activities under article 17 of the LFPIORPI. They also establish the terms and modalities for notices to the Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera, submitted through the Servicio de Administración Tributaria. In practice, the rules are the bridge between statutory AML duties and the SAT systems used to register, file and receive communications.
Registration, notices and customer identification
Entities or individuals carrying out covered vulnerable activities must register through the prevention portal, maintain identifying information, and submit notices or zero-activity reports when the law and forms require them. The framework also ties customer and beneficial-owner information to the identification files and official formats that accompany the rules and related resolutions.
Virtual asset provider layer
Acuerdo 126/2020 added a Chapter II Bis for those operating with virtual assets. It requires additional pre-registration documentation for persons carrying out the vulnerable activity in article 17, fraction XVI, including corporate documents, ownership information, operating websites, legal representative data, and update obligations. This layer is separate from financial-entity regulation under Mexico’s fintech law and applies to non-financial persons that fall within the LFPIORPI definition.
Crypto relevance and jurisdictional impact
For the crypto sector, the rules matter because article 17, fraction XVI of the LFPIORPI treats the habitual and professional exchange of virtual assets by non-financial persons, through electronic or digital platforms, as a vulnerable activity when the legal conditions are met. The statute also references services that custody, store or transfer virtual assets. Mexico’s SAT portal identifies “Proveedores de activos virtuales” as a vulnerable-activity category.
The current statutory text sets UMA-based notice thresholds for virtual asset operations and service fees. The SAT threshold page presents identification as “always” for virtual asset operations and lists notice thresholds in UMA and Mexican pesos. These thresholds should be reviewed against the current official SAT page before publication because peso equivalents change with the UMA value.
Status and implementation timeline
As of June 30, 2026, the LFPIORPI General Rules are in force. The SAT/UIF criteria published after the July 2025 LFPIORPI reform state that the existing Reglamento and General Rules should continue to be observed until updated. The 2025 reform also requires SHCP, with SAT’s opinion, to modify the General Rules within twelve months after the reform entered into force, and leaves the effective dates for new article 18 obligations on risk assessments, internal policies, training, monitoring and audits to future rule amendments.
This profile uses June 30, 2026 as the verification date and should be reviewed when SHCP publishes the pending amendments. Editors should treat it as a profile of the current general-rule instrument, not as a complete profile of the LFPIORPI, the Reglamento, the fintech law, or Banco de México’s virtual asset determinations.