He Central Reserve Bank of Peru (BCRP) raised the maximum compensatory rate of the financial system to 101.86% annually for the period November 2023 – April 2024.
Jorge Carrillo, specialist in financial education and teacher at Pacífico Business School, explains that, since May 2021, the BCRP establishes the maximum rates allowed for consumer loans and mypes in the financial system, in compliance with Law 31143, known as ” Usury Law”.
“This limit represents double the average rate of consumer loans in the financial system in the period April 2023 – September 2023, according to the methodology used,” the expert warned.
Since its implementation, promoted by Congress, the maximum rate in soles has progressively evolved: May 2021 – October 2021 (83.40%), November 2021 – April 2022 (83.64%), May 2022 – October 2022 (83.70%), November 2022 – April 2023 (87.91%), May 2023 – October 2023 (96.32%), November 2023 – April 2024 (101.86%).
Carrillo Acosta explains that the objective of the Usury Law was to establish a cap on interest rates, reducing the collection of some products, “such as the credit card cash withdrawal fee, which is beneficial for the cardholder.”
However, the results were contrary. The teacher maintains that people with lower incomes and new entrepreneurs were harmed, “who are practically excluded from the financial system.” That is, the banks no longer wanted to lend to them.
BCRP raises the maximum compensatory rate of the financial system
From this, this universe of marginalized users of the financial system had to resort to informal lenders (such as the ‘drop by drop‘), with the high cost and exposure to criminal collection methods that this implies.
“The same specialized organizations, such as the BCR and the SBS, recognize that this measure goes against financial inclusion, restricting access to credit for more than 200,000 people each year,” says Carrillo.
Likewise, this measure mainly harmed the smallest financial entities (municipal savings banks, microfinance banks and cooperatives), which are the ones that serve informal clients, “limiting their volume of loans.”
It should be noted that this increase in the compensatory rate mainly affects clients in the formal financial sector, “because in the informal sector they can charge you up to more than 1,000% annually,” warns the professor.
Source: Larepublica
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