From May Banco Industrial will be included in the list of entities that make up the Panamanian banking system.
The Superintendency of Banks in Panama granted to Banco Industrial de Guatemala a general license to operate in the banking system, starting with an initial capital of $20 million and "... 23 employees", reports Prensalibre.com.
"... The BI-Bank headquarters will be in a central avenue in the international banking center of Panama, in the area of Obarrio. "
With three agencies in San Salvador, Banco Industrial will begin operations.
Alicia Maria Mayorga, president of the institution in El Salvador said they already have planned an expansion for next year with the opening of new agencies and more products and services.
"Juan Miguel Torrebiarte, president of the BI corporation, said that the arrival in El Salvador is a major event for the financial group, because through this new bank they will consolidate their presence in the Central American Northern Triangle (Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras ) as well as allowing them to offer their present and potential customers greater regional coverage and services to facilitate trade", reported Elperiodico.com.gt
Business loans of more than $ 640.000 pay between 8% and 12.5%.
Business loans of less than $ 640,000 pay considerably more, between 11.3% and 34.4%.
The information comes from the monthly report generated by the Bank Superintendence of Guatemala, which for the first time includes interest rate information filtered by credit portfolio, economic activity, type of credit and rank.
Both "Banco Industrial" and G&T Continental are moving forward with their expansion plans in Central America.
Banco Industrial will open an office in El Salvador in May 2010, while G&T Continental plans to enter the Costa Rican market in the medium term. G&T already operates in Panama and El Salvador.
Diego Pulido, director at "Corporación BI", parent company of Banco Industrial, said in a Prensalibre.com article that "...
The banking system's late portfolio reached $283 million in June 2009, 24% more than the same month of 2008.
As a portion of the entire credit portfolio, late loans accounted for 3% of the total, while it was 2.5% in June 2008. Bad credits grew at a larger pace than the entire credit portfolio, which grew 5% in the last 12 months, reaching $8.856 million.
In order to support liquidity, the government is analyzing whether to accept a $500 million line of credit from the IDB.
The Superintendent of Guatemalan Banks, Edgar Barquín, said that the purpose of this instrument would be to compensate for the likely loss of foreign credit lines.
According to an article in prensalibre.com, "credit lines granted by correspondent banks to local ones in the past 15 months have fallen by $130 million,” and "there are now nearly $1.6 billion in lines of credit."