The IMF believes that the financial stability framework is not well prepared to handle a potential systemic financial crisis without seriously compromising fiscal resources.
In a review carried out late last year, the International Monetary Fund identified serious vulnerabilities in the pension sector, secondary markets and crisis management mechanisms and stated that they need to be taken care of immediately.
Fitch Ratings reported that the risks to regional banks during the current crisis are growing and represent a major challenge for 2009.
The combination of reduced credit expansion, fund restrictions and increasing loan provisions have limited the profits of most banks and it is expected for these factors to continue to pressure the results in the coming months.
Fitch Ratings reported that the risks to regional banks during the current crisis are growing and represent a major challenge for 2009.
The combination of reduced credit expansion, fund restrictions and increasing loan provisions have limited the profits of most banks and it is expected for these factors to continue to pressure the results in the coming months.
Summa Financial Special: Presenting the classification and analysis of the regional financial system.
In the April edition, Revista Summa will present its bank, insurer and stock exchange rankings. On the whole, it shows a healthy sector with the capacity to face the challenges ahead. Regional banking groups have gained greater importance and the magazine identified ten that represented 33% of the assets for 2008.
This special report by Fitch examines the credit risk dynamics of El Salvador as it coincides with the end of a political cycle in the country.
Financial pressures and external liquidity, exacerbated by political uncertainty during a pre-electoral period, led Fitch to modify the Prespectives of the IDRs of sovereign risk in the long-term regarding foreign and local currency in October 2008.
The management of micro-financing in the context of the global financial and economic crisis implies challenges, but also opportunities.
With the title "The World Crisis and Micro-Finance," the Academy of Central America organized a discussion for legislative advisors and journalists, where a professor of Ohio State University, Claudio González Vega, analyzed the role of the micro-finance in the current situation.
It is necessary to prevent the governmental assistance to less solvent debtors from destroying the payment culture.
The micro-finance sector globally has a very low level of default, a product of a culture that is important to preserve by restructuring contracts in risk instead of granting direct financial assistance to debtors.
The Central Bank of Honduras is pressuring bankers to enlarge their credit portfolios, but banks are resisting any change to their risk policies.
In statements in La Tribuna, the well-known banker, Jorge Bueso Arias, insisted that "it is not that [the Central Bank] wants to put forth mandates, but rather... it wants that we increase our credit portfolio, and I have said publicly that our main responsibility is to our depositors,...
An analysis of the changes in the dynamics of granting credit, in an interview with the Superintendent of the Salvadorian Financial System.
Luis Armando Montenegro, Superintendent of the Financial System, in an interview published in La Prensa Gráfica, responds to questions about the liquidity of the Salvadorian financial system, the contraction of external credit to the local banking system, changes in the granting of loans, and interest rates, among other issues.
Tomorrow the Superintendence of Banks (SIB) will request that the Monetary Board approve a modification of the Regulations for Credit Risk Management.
Even though bank portfolios in arrears are not at a critical level, the SIB will request that the Monetary Board make the changes to the rules in order for banks to increase their reserves for bad debts (loans).
In spite of inflation and the world financial crises, Panamanians continue acquiring credit cards and the banks have not increased their restrictions.
As of September of this year the banking system credit card balance reached 629.8 million dollars, up 5.6 million dollars as compared to August's numbers of 324.2 million dollars, according to the Bank Superintendent's Office.