The bank, owned by Colombia's Grupo Aval has bought Grupo Financiero, which includes Banco Reformador in Guatemala and Transcom Bank Limited of Barbados.
The only thing now pending is approval of this transaction by the financial market's supervisory authorities in the country. According to the general manager of BAC San José in Costa Rica, Gerardo Corrales, the intention of this purchase is to strengthen corporate banking in the Guatemalan market..
State banks are leading this growth, although private banks still retain 61% of the total loan portfolio in the U.S. currency.
An article in Nacion.com reports that "The growth in dollar loans from public banks is striking because it is a market that traditionally is dominated more by private financial institutions."
As an explanation for the growth in dollar loans, one point mentioned is the lack of perception exchange risk due to the behavior of the exchange rate, which for a long time has been very close to the lower limit of the exchange rate band set by the Central Bank, this coupled with the relatively low interest rates for loans in foreign currency.
The government of Costa Rica is promoting a legal reform that would transfer the cost of financial supervision to banking institutions, insurance companies and pension operators.
The legal amendment was included in the Bill for the Efficient Management of Public Finances already sent to the Legislature.
So far, "the Central Bank is funding 80% of the operation of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (Sugef), the Superintendent of Securities (Sugeval), the Superintendent of Pensions (Supen) and the Superintendent of Insurance (SUGESE)," reported Nacion.com.
Only the Banco Popular plans to open ten new offices, the rest have plans from only one or two openings.
For the banks Nacional BCR, BCT, Lafise and others, it will be a year of moderate growth and their plans will be to participate in new developments or strategic communities.
"In 2011, many of these entities carried out expansion processes: Banco General opened offices in Rohrmoser, the banco Lafise in Multiplaza Escazú, San José, Alajuela and Liberia, the Banco Nacional in Bagaces and Puerto Viejo, and the BCR in Santa Ana, Alajuela, Ciudad Quesada, Perez Zeledon and Pococí.
Some entities said they would be willing to declare their individual data if the Sugef removes the restriction.
Since the weekly newspaper El Financiero filed a lawsuit pushing for banks to publish their capital adequacy indicators, the issue has been debated by the General Superintendency of Financial Institutions (Sugef) and the banking market.
Following this, a group of banks have said they would not object to disclosing the information, as long as the publications are endorsed by Sugef.
Nine of the eleven private banks operating in the market generated fewer profits in 2010 than in 2009.
The data published by the Superintendence of Financial Institutions (SUGEF), dos not provide information on Bansol, which began operations in November 2010.
"Private banks were mainly affected by the 9% drop of the dollar in 2010, as most of their assets are in that currency," reported the article in Nacion.com, "Since financial statements are done in Colones, transferring their assets from Dollars into Colones results in a lower valuation due to lost value in the price of the currency."