The Wall Street Journal citing the people familiar with the situation around Citigroup Inc reported on its website that the company is closing in on the deal with the U.S. government to increase it ownership in the bank to as much as 40%, confirming thus speculations that were spread before. The deal could be announced today, on Thursday.

But the company is concerned with the implications incurring from a greater stake of the federal government which is related to the bank’s ownership of Grupo Financiero Banamex, the No. 2 bank in Mexico by assets. The point is that Mexican law prohibits any local institution to provide more than 10% of stake to any foreign government. Thus some Citigroup managers are worried by possible pressure to be exerted by the Mexican administration on the company to reduce or fully abandon its stake in Banamex.

As it is known Citigroup is very reluctant to part with Banamex that plays an important role in the bank’s operations and the company executives are hopeful that the issue could be fixed on the intergovernmental level.