By William Freebairn

Grupo Financiero Banorte SA, Mexico's fifth-largest bank, will offer home mortgages it said are the longest fixed-rate loans available in the country.

The 30-year fixed-rate home mortgages will be available for up to 95 percent of the value of the real estate, the Monterrey, Mexico-based bank said in an e-mailed statement.

The offering is a bid by Banorte, the biggest Mexican-owned bank, to set itself apart from larger foreign-owned competitors, said Morgan Stanley banking analyst Jorge Kuri. Mortgage lending in Mexico grew 82 percent in July from a year earlier, according to the central bank.

``Banorte is clearly making a big effort to come out with products that differentiate it in Mexico,'' Kuri said in a phone interview from New York. The bank offered accounts targeting women customers earlier this year, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: William Freebairn in Mexico City at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it