The Superintendence of Competition has authorized the Honduran company Imperia Intercontinental and Inversiones El Salvador to buy Banco Citibank, five of its subsidiaries, Seguros e Inversiones, and Cititarjetas.
From a statement issued by the Superintendency of Competition in El Salvador:
The Board of Directors of the Superintendency of Competition has approved this day, the authorization request for a merger consisting of the purchase of Banco Citibank de El Salvador, S.A. and five of its subsidiaries, Seguros e Inversiones S.A. (SISA) and its subsidiary and Cititarjetas, by Imperia Imperia Intercontinental Inc. and Inversiones El Salvador S.A. de C.V. The deal involves a non-horizontal economic concentration of a conglomerate for most of its operations and a vertical relationship for the provision of financial services through ATMs at gas stations.
The sale of Citibank operations in El Salvador to Honduras' Grupo Terra has been formalized, with the insurer SISA included in the transaction.
From a statement issued by the Stock Exchange of El Salvador:
It was reported that subject to regulatory approvals from the competent Salvadoran authorities, Inversiones Financieras Citibank, S.A. has sold to the company designated by the Terra Group, all of its shares in Citi Tarjetas de El Salvador, S.A. de C.V.and Banco Citibank de El Salvador, SA and that Citibank Overseas Investment Corporation and Citibank Investments, SA, sold the company designated by the Terra Group its minority stake in Cuscatlán Valores, SA de CV Casa de Corredores de Bolsa.
The business group chaired by the Panamanian Stanley Motta may be interested in acquiring units of Citi's consumer banking operations in Panama and Costa Rica.
It is not yet been revealed which of Citibank' consumer banking companies in Panama and Costa Rica they may be interested in acquiring. However, potential stakeholders include the General Bank of Panama and Grupo ASSA, which in addition to being insurers, also runs La Hipotecaria.
On 7th and 8th of November 150 participants from the U.S. and Latin America will gather together during the first Central American summit on outsourcing services to be held in Nicaragua.
From information published by ProNicaragua:
ProNicaragua, the official investment and export promoter of the Government of Nicaragua, will be organizing the first Central American summit on outsourcing services entitled 'Central American Nearshore Summit 2013, which will bring together 150 participants from the U.S. and Latin America in this sector.
In the past ten years, online transactions have grown at a rapid pace.
Banks surveyed by website Elsalvador.com confirms the trend.
El Banco Agrícola currently serves about 150 thousand customers with their online banking service.
In case of Citibank, Consumer Product director, José Eduardo Luna, noted that 30% of transactions performed by individuals are done through online banking.
Citi has developed a $100 million credit facility for the airline; it will be used for working capital and for strengthening the company’s expansion plan.
Francisco Núñez, director of Corporate Banking at Citi El Salvador, remarked that TACA’s future credit card sales will serve as collateral for the loan.
“He added that with the facility, TACA will work with unified credit conditions, more in line with their capital needs and with lower administrative fees”, reported Laprensagrafica.com.
MoneyGram International and Citi today announced an agreement to expand MoneyGram's money transfer services to all Citi locations in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
"This important agreement extends MoneyGram's presence in Citi's network across Central America," said Dan O'Malley, MoneyGram International executive vice president for the Americas.
SkyMiles is the world's largest frequent flyer program.
Travelers choosing this card will obtain double miles for all their purchases, with a welcome credit of 4.000 to 20.000 miles, depending on the type of card.
"Members of this program have the flexibility of using their Delta miles in any flight, on any day", published Elfinancierocr.com, "this promotion will be valid from August 1 to October 31".
Profitability drops as asset liquidity increases, but liquidity is what ensures the life of the banking business and their customers' money.
Panamanian banks have not used the extra funds that the financial incentive program (PEF) made available to them in order to stimulate lending. In addition, it must be considered that said funds are very expensive, and they have simply not been needed.
In March 2009, the banks from the financial system recorded profits of $22 million, compared to $34.9 million for the same period last year.
Of the banks, Agricultural Bank was the one that registered the highest profits.
José Luis Henríquez Elsalvador.com wrote: "It is anticipated that with the loans contracted by the Government with multilateral organizations and the release of contingency reserves that the SSF forced banks to establish, interest rates will begin to go down gradually. Financial statements from newspapers also indicate that banks had a loan portfolio of $8.697 billion, lower than the $8.895 billion recorded by the Superintendent in March 2008."
The region which produces 13% of the bank's Latin American utilities is seen by the bank as an economic block.
The Guatemalan newspaper Siglo XXI interviewed the CEO of Citi Guatemala, Juan Miró, who reported that they are currently working on optimizing the IT platform in order to better serve the Central American market.
He said that among the options they want to offer regional clients are: "For them to be able to make local and regional transactions as if were a single Citibank Central America bank. For example, they can view their accounts in the region, make fund transfers from one country to the other and pay credit cards from another country in their country of origin; these are services we are already offering but the idea is to make them better."
Some banks already published the adjustment and others announce that the increase in the credit rates will occur shortly, although they did not say exactly when.
Scotiabank has raised the interest rates between 0.25 and 2 percent for loans. Scotiabank sales and services director, Jose Eduardo Angulo Milla, indicated that in order to not affect clients' budget, the amount for monthly loan payments has not been modified due to the interest rate adjustment, however he reported that the "non modification of the quota generates a portion of the capital that will be accumulated when the credit term expires.
El Salvador is the second country to join the Citigroup network in Central America; the plan should be completed in the last quarter of this year and includes Panama.
The full Citibank network started to function fully yesterday and is made up branches that belonged to Cuscatlan Bank and Bank Uno
The new brand, made up of the "Citi" logo in blue letters set on a white background with a red arch on top, will now be erected on more than 100 public spots throughout the country and at more than 190 ATM's.
Citibank got the approval of the Salvadoran authorities to integrate the operations of Banco Uno Bank and Cuscatlan Bank.
The Superintendence of the Financial System (SSF) reported yesterday that the Board granted its approval last Wednesday after receiving the corresponding reports.
On Monday, September 8, operations as a merged bank and merged financial investment companies will begin under the name of Citibank.