Limiting the fees charged in Costa Rica and establishing a law that defines market limits in Guatemala are part of the attempts being made in the region to regulate the use of credit cards.
A law proposal presented last January before the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica, aims to regulate the percentage of the commission paid by businesses for credit or debit cards.
In an unstable exchange market, lack of transparency in the rules on intervention by the Central Bank of Costa Rica increases uncertainty and drives investors towards the safest currency.
EDITORIAL
The rise in the price of the dollar in Costa Rica is a negative factor for some sectors and positive for others, but generally negative for the economy, because it distorts companies' plans, diminishing their competitiveness, and because it increases market players' willingness to speculate.
Central America and the Dominican Republic have agreed together to ensure financial liquidity, create mechanisms for monitoring risk management and financial systems, as well as taking measures against the effects of the euro zone crisis and the weakness of U.S.
Carlos Acevedo, president of the Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador, told Prensalibre.com that "we are preparing a regional financial system and shielding mechanisms."
The recent increase in the value of the Costa Rican colon versus the dollar is worrisome, not only because there are no clear reasons to explain it, but also because it would be hard to contain it without causing greater problems.
In the past weeks, and without apparent reason, the price of the U.S. dollar in Costa Rica dropped considerably.
Last week we surveyed some financial operators as to why these movements where occurring, the general answer being: “we don’t know”.
Fitch Ratings warned that although Central American sovereigns have resisted the global crisis pretty well so far, they now require fiscal consolidation in order to maintain their credit ratings.
Summary
Fitch‐rated Central American sovereigns have thus far withstood the destabilizing effects of the global economic and financial crisis, despite monetary and exchange rate policy challenges.
Although recent public opinion has focused on what went wrong with securitization, it is important to recognize the many benefits associated with sound securitization.
Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR), October 2009 - Chapter 2
Key points:
Sound securitization provides important benefits—to allocate credit more efficiently, transfer credit risk away from banking sector to more diversified investors, and more finely tailor risks and returns to potential end investors.
An analysis suggests that the lack of a stock market is not the fault of businesses or investors, but of the system.
In his blog in Elfinancierocr.com, Allan Rodriguez, Founding Member and General Manager of Group CFS, analyzes in two successive posts how much costs are implied by the productive economy not having a stock market from which to obtain financing as several causes of the problem.