The Central Bank announced that from August 12 it will reduce from 15% to 13% the legal reserve week rate in national currency.
From the Central Bank of Nicaragua statement:
Managua, August 07, 2019. The Central Bank of Nicaragua (BCN) reports that liquidity conditions are observed that favor the support of banking and monetary operations, which represents a change with respect to previous behavior.
Between December 2017 and March of this year, the number of active credits in the country fell 21%, mainly because of the fall in commercial loans and cards.
Data from the Superintendency of Banks and Other Financial Institutions (Siboif), specify that between December 2017 and March this year the number of loans fell by almost 400 thousand, going from 1.79 million to 1.41 million.
In a competitive scenario for lower costs and higher productivity, devaluation against the Lempira Dollar in Honduras and the Cordoba Dollar in Nicaragua is a factor that could help these economies stay competitive.
In the last five years, the exchange rate in Honduras increased by 17%, from 21.06 Lempiras per U.S. dollar in June 2014 to 24.67 in the same month in 2019.
Because of decreasing demand for credit since April last year, banks in the Nicaraguan plaza are filling up with money they can not place in the market.
According to estimates by the Nicaraguan Foundation for Economic and Social Development (Funides) based on official figures, so far this crisis has boosted the liquidity of banks, increasing the proportion of available money that financial institutions have with respect to their obligations to the public, going from 31.76% reported in March 2018 to 46.73% recorded in May this year.
In the first four months of the year, trading volume totaled $3.873 million, 19% less than the same period in 2018.
From the Central Bank of Nicaragua report:
According to official statistics, the volume of exchange market operations in April totaled 924.7 million dollars (US$38.5 million daily average), showing a 0.97% decrease with respect to the level registered in the previous month.
The volume of operations totaled $2,948 million during the first quarter of the year, registering a 19% decrease with respect to the same period in 2018.
From the Central Bank of Nicaragua report:
The volume traded (purchases + sales) of foreign currency in the exchange market during the first quarter of 2019 was 2,948.3 million dollars (daily average of US$38.8 million), showing a decrease of 18.9 percent over the first quarter of the previous year, mainly because of the decrease in financial sector operations with the public.
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From May 2019, foreign customers will have to declare to local system banks that their funds meet their country's tax requirements.
The Superintendence of Banks of Panama (SBP) approved Agreement 02-2019, which implements the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force, which consists of expanding the required due diligence measures of banks with their customers.
Since the political and economic crisis began in Nicaragua, credit placement has fallen, while delinquency and loan restructuring have increased.
Data from the Superintendence of Banks and Other Financial Institutions (Siboif) indicate that between April 2018 and February 2019, a period during which the political crisis in the country has deepened, the fall in the net credit portfolio was 16%.
Up to December 2018, the gross portfolio of the financial system in Nicaragua totaled $4.464 million, 9% less than in the same month in 2017, partly because of the performance of commercial and personal credit.
From the Central Bank of Nicaragua report:
For commercial credit, there was a 10.7 percent reduction from last year and for personal loans, the reduction was 14.1 percent.
During the last three months of last year, $3.324 million was traded on the stock market, far surpassing the $558 million recorded in the same period in 2017.
During the fourth quarter, the most dynamic market was the primary, where 83.9% of the total volume was traded, and the amount traded in the fourth quarter of 2018 represented a little more than 6 times the value traded during the same period in 2017, reports the Central Bank of Nicaragua (BCN).
After Nicaragua Financia Capital S.A. declared that no funds were available to meet its obligations, the entity announced that it will propose to investors to renegotiate the terms.
On February 8, the Superintendence of Banks and Other Financial Institutions (Siboif) decided to revoke the authorization granted to Financia Capital, S.A. to make a public offering of fixed income securities.
Because Financia Capital S.A. does not have the funds available to meet its obligations, it was revoked the authorization to make a public offering of fixed income securities.
The Superintendence of Banks and Other Financial Institutions (Siboif) informed that its authorization was revoked because "... the representatives of the issuer Financia Capital S.A.
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.
The volume of operations totaled $3.413 million during the fourth quarter of 2018 in Nicaragua, recording an increase of just 1% over the same period in 2017.
From the Central Bank of Nicaragua report:
The volume traded (purchases + sales) of foreign currency in the exchange market totaled 3,413.0 million dollars during the fourth quarter of 2018 (daily average of US$44.3 million), showing a 1.1 percent increase with respect to the fourth quarter of the previous year, mainly because of the increase in the operations of the BCN's foreign exchange desk with banks and financiers.