The ratings agencies Standard & Poor's and Moody's have left the sovereign debt rating of Honduras unchanged.
The rating agencies Standard & Poor's and Moody's have not changed the ratings of the sovereign debt of Honduras leaving it at Stable Negative B and B2 respectively, as reported for December 2013 by both agencies and published by the Central American Monetary Council (CMC).
It has been announced that from March Costa Rican banks will be able to allow their customers access to the Central Interconnected System of Payments.
From a press release by the Central Bank of Costa Rica:
A new service has been developed called 'Pagos al Exterior (PEX)' (Foreign Payments), which will allow individuals and legal persons resident in the country, to send and receive transfers of funds to and from accounts in a financial institution located in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. The aim of the service is to provide a fast and secure technology platform for processing commercial payments and remittances in the region.
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 "Treaty on systems of payment and the liquidation of stocks in Central America and the Dominican Republic" is now in effect in El Salvador, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.
The Central American Monetary Council (CMC), made up of the presidents of Central Banks from Central America and the Dominican Republic, announced that the treaty is in effect since December 5 for those three countries which have met all ratification requirements.
Not only the euro and the pound sterling have been strengthening against the US dollar, so have Central American currencies, above all Guatemala's quetzal.
The Honduran lempira and Costa Rica's colon have also been gaining against the dollar, though not by as much as the quetzal.
The flow of hard currency from the United States to Central America has stepped up considerably in recent months, bolstering the value of the region's currencies.