The Superior Court has ordered the temporary cancellation due to lack of a ruling from the Bank of Guatemala, and the fact that Congress gave approval without having a majority, as stipulated by law.
The Constitutional Court (CC) has provisionally suspended the Credit Card Act, which came into force on March 8. Gloria Porras, president of the CC, told Prensalibre.com that one of the major failings was that Congress did not pass the Law with 105 votes, which is defined as a majority.
Compared with other economies, the indicator measuring non-payment in the banking system is relatively small, with marked fluctuations in different sectors.
An article on Prensalibre.com reports that according to the Superintendency of Banks (SIB), the indicator for defaults in the Guatemalan banking system "went from 1.55% in May last year to 1.43% in the same month this year."
In the past two years, over $2 billion worth of financing for large enterprises in Guatemala has been provided by large Colombian banks.
The main participant is Bancolombia, which in 2010 and 2011 was involved in syndicated loans for over $1 billion, including the acquisition of Deorsa and Deocsa by Britain's Actis, the extension of Ingenio Magdalena and financing for Cementos Progreso and Cabcorp.
In recent years, electronic transfers have been growing at a rapid pace.
Bank managers agree that the use of electronic banking operations reduces transaction costs, being this the main reason for its growth.
Luis Lara, manager of the Banco Industrial (BI) told Prensalibre.com that the institution expects amount of electronic transactions made by the end of 2011 to exceed those of 2010 when they totaled $1,377 million.
Banking liquidity is above levels seen in recent years.
The president of the Banco de Guatemala, Edgar Barquin, said the bank plans for this year an increase in bank credit of 12.2%.
"Luis Lara, manager of Industrial Bank, said credit demand of individuals and companies have recovered since October 2010 and coincides with the growth of this variable estimated at 12 percent because it is expected for the economy to recover after the effects of the global financial crisis", reports the article in Elperiodico.com.gt.
Guatemala's Banking Superintendent submitted new regulations for approval before the Central Bank's Monetary Board.
Edgar Barquín, head of the Superintendence, explained that the proposed regulation intends to comply with Basel accords and strengthen risk-based supervision.
Barquín added that "... they want banks to execute strategies which include credit profiling, policies for risk management and adequate liquidity controls".
The monetary authority of Guatemala, Banguat, continued to intervene in the market by selling dollars to address a rise that could be due to speculation.
Authorities and analysts argued about the causes for the appreciation of the US currency for which there are apparently no clear causes.
Yesterday, March 18, the reference exchange rate was Q8.10 for $1 US, while at some banks the selling price of the currency was being quoted between Q8.14 and Q8.18.
Export revenues grew by 2.8% and tourism by 4.3%, but remittances fell by 9.6%.
The statistics published by the Bank of Guatemala and noted in sigloxxi.com, referred to the period between January 1 and March 5.
The drop in remittances is highlighted: “In February of this year, $281.9 million entered the country from family remittances, an amount $36.4 million less than what was captured during the same month in 2008, a decrease of 11.4%.
Credit to the private sector grew by 11.2% in January, a lower growth than for the same period last year when the increase was 26.4%.
Reporter Jessica Gramajo wrote in the SigloXXI website: "Data from the Bank of Guatemala (Banguat) reported that in January of this year the banking system maintained a loan portfolio of $10.901 million (Q 87.240,8 million).
The banking sector requested that the term for the temporary measure of providing liquidity in US dollars via repo transactions be extended.
Sigloxxi.com reports that "Jose Angel Lopez Camposeco, president of the Banking Association of Guatemala (ABG) and the Rural Development Bank (Banrural), commented that the measure worked, "because it is an instrument which gave signals that in case of any need for or suspension of credit, we have resources available."
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