Fitch downgraded Mexico's Issuer Default Rating (IDR) from 'BBB+' to 'BBB' in foreign currency and from 'A-' to 'BBB+' in domestic currency.
Both ratings have a 'Stable' outlook. Additionally, the country's ceiling was reduced to 'A-' from 'A'.
Fitch downgraded Mexico's ratings because the country's fiscal situation has gotten worse with the financial crisis and a reduction in Mexican oil production.
Participants of the event will discuss new practices for assessing risks when granting credits.
The First Regional Congress on Administration of Financial Risks is taking place at the conventions center of hotel Tikal Futura in Guatemala.
"It features the participation of bankers, auditors and risk analysts and managers from Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Panama and Venezuela", reports Prensalibre.com.
A report by risk rating company Equilibrium (Moody's), analyzes the sector's main indicators for the first half of 2009.
Assets and Loan Portfolio
By the end of the first half of 2009, the Banking system reported $63.725 million in assets. The loan portfolio makes up 63.2% of the total ($40.291 million). Loans had grown at an average pace of 19% from 2004 to 2007, but in September 2008 there was a change in the trend.
Standard & Poor's risk rating, lowered El Salvador’s rating from "BB+" to "BB."
The rating firm indicated that the effects of international crisis on the Salvadoran economy are mainly reflected in the fiscal situation.
Analyst Ricardo Perdomo told Laprensagrafica.com: "The progressive deterioration of the economy, especially in regards to the increasing fiscal deficit, allowed a prediction that ratings would go down."
The crisis has rapidly increased the levels of delinquencies, and getting paid on time and in form may be vital for an SME.
Maintaining liquidity has become a golden rule for businesses and one way to keep cash on hand is to simply stop paying suppliers. Of course, those who suffer most are companies that do not have bargaining power due to their size to recover unpaid debts and to devote resources to an adequate analysis of the risks of extending credit to each buyer.
Fitch Ratings reported that the risks to regional banks during the current crisis are growing and represent a major challenge for 2009.
The combination of reduced credit expansion, fund restrictions and increasing loan provisions have limited the profits of most banks and it is expected for these factors to continue to pressure the results in the coming months.
Fitch Ratings reported that the risks to regional banks during the current crisis are growing and represent a major challenge for 2009.
The combination of reduced credit expansion, fund restrictions and increasing loan provisions have limited the profits of most banks and it is expected for these factors to continue to pressure the results in the coming months.
CONASSIF (National Council for Financial System Supervision) of Costa Rica tempered several risk indicators that would allow banks to offer better repayment terms to their customers.
The Chamber of Banking and Financial Institutions of Costa Rica (CBF) had requested a long series of amendments tending toward more flexible criteria for banking supervision in February and the CONASSIF had already made some concessions with regard to risk indicators three weeks ago.
The Superintendent of Financial Institutions of Costa Rica reported that the repossession of property for unpaid debts rose 77% from February 2008 to February 2009.
The increase in auction advertising for goods recovered by the banks is well-known, especially for real estate and cars whose owners cannot continue to make the monthly payments due to loss of income, unemployment and primarily because of the increase in interest rates.
Summa Financial Special: Presenting the classification and analysis of the regional financial system.
In the April edition, Revista Summa will present its bank, insurer and stock exchange rankings. On the whole, it shows a healthy sector with the capacity to face the challenges ahead. Regional banking groups have gained greater importance and the magazine identified ten that represented 33% of the assets for 2008.
Fitch expects that Latin America’s real GDP will contract by 0.9% in 2009, with Brazil’s economy stagnating at best and Mexico contracting by over 2%.
Latin American economies have recoupled with the crisis in the developed economies. Since September 2008, Latin American countries have been buffeted by stronger external headwinds, as evident from the fall in regional currencies and stock markets and from widening bond spreads.
The money is intended for loans to small and medium sized businesses at preferential rates, but Bancrédito, the state bank which manages it, alleges legal flaws that prevent it from granting them.
For Bancrédito, the problems are that these funds require separate supervision and that the interest rates at which the loans need to be made as provided by law would cause the bank losses.
This special report by Fitch examines the credit risk dynamics of El Salvador as it coincides with the end of a political cycle in the country.
Financial pressures and external liquidity, exacerbated by political uncertainty during a pre-electoral period, led Fitch to modify the Prespectives of the IDRs of sovereign risk in the long-term regarding foreign and local currency in October 2008.
The management of micro-financing in the context of the global financial and economic crisis implies challenges, but also opportunities.
With the title "The World Crisis and Micro-Finance," the Academy of Central America organized a discussion for legislative advisors and journalists, where a professor of Ohio State University, Claudio González Vega, analyzed the role of the micro-finance in the current situation.
It is necessary to prevent the governmental assistance to less solvent debtors from destroying the payment culture.
The micro-finance sector globally has a very low level of default, a product of a culture that is important to preserve by restructuring contracts in risk instead of granting direct financial assistance to debtors.