There is solidity in financial institutions, but there are pending issues, such as the access of international banks to push interest rates down.
The profits of the private banks operating in the country grew 65% between January and November of this year compared to the same period in 2020.
The reference interest rates range between 4.9% and 20.8% in thirteen credit segments in Ecuador.
In profits totaled $ 339′238,130, while in 2020 they obtained a total of $ 205′034,790.
The positions remain almost the same, with the exception of Banco del Pacífico, a private entity whose shares are in the hands of the National Financial Corporation, which fell from third to tenth place.
Banco Guayaquil, which until May 2012 was managed by the current President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, as executive president, went from fifth to second place this year, leaving Produbanco, Internacional and Bolivariano lower.
However, Banco del Pacífico remains among the largest in the country, since it retains second place in assets, with $ 6,970.3 million, demand deposits ($ 3,066.2 million) and time deposits ($ 2,294.8 million ), among other items as of last November, only surpassed by Banco Pichincha.
Next, the list of the ten private banks that obtained the most profits this year, ordered from highest to lowest, according to the latest report from the Superintendency of Banks and Insurance.
1.- Pichincha: $ 93′651.320,11
2.- Guayaquil: $ 58′548.490
3.- Production: $ 38′044,977.6
4.- International: $ 37’952,560.91
5.- Bolivarian: $ 35′789,032.96
6.- Diners: $35′597.529,82
7.- Austro: $10′366.653,76
8.- General Rumiñahui: $ 9′151,323.08
9.- Solidarity: $ 8′099,125.93
10.- Pacific: $ 5′009,917.99
The sum of the assets of the country’s private banks grew 8.7% and total liabilities 9.1% between January and November of this year compared to the same period in 2020.
“It has been a year of recovery. From the profit point of view, this year the banks have had a higher level of activity, which has allowed them to grant more loans both on the corporate and consumer side “, indicates Santiago Mosquera, dean of the Business School from the University of the Americas.
The Gross portfolio of all banks (total loans) grew 13.4% so far this year compared to 2020.
“Credit in 2020 did not become more dynamic, but in 2021 it did, in the year when things began to normalize,” says Mosquera.
The level of provisions has remained constant so far this year, with $ 955 million.
Analysts estimate that the gross domestic product (the monetary value of all final goods and services produced by a territory in a given period) of the country grows by 3.3% during 2022, which implies greater economic activity.
Enrique Serrano, analyst and professor at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, affirms that Ecuadorian banks have very high short-term liquidity because they have preferred security over profitability. This handling has another side of the coin.
“Active interest rates, that of loans, have not fallen to the same level as passive ones, that is, that of deposits and savings. In short, it is a solid, liquid, solvent bank, but the worrying thing is that lending rates have not reached levels closer to international ones, which are lower, ”says Serrano.
There are three parameters that this analyst observes when studying the situation of the banks, and they are the technical patrimony, that is, the patrimonial solvency; the level of delinquency or troubled loans they have compared to the total; and the third factor is the level of short-term liquidity.
“A look is made of the productive assets that qualify to have technical equity, which is a measure in which it is calculated how much each bank should have according to what it has in assets, in loans granted. The bank is doing very well in this, it has a very high level of technical assets, as it is called ”.
As for delinquency, with two specific exceptions from public banks, such as the National Financial Corporation, all the others have reasonable rates despite the pandemic, indicates Serrano.
The third element is liquidity: how much money, silver, liquid fund the bank has to sustain itself against its depositors and their expenses. “You can’t see anything serious, strange or strange there.”
The income from international banks to generate greater competition and push down lending interest rates is one of the pending in the country.
“This requires long-term reassurance for the investor. The bank does not escape this, it is not immune to these fears, but the attribute that distinguishes it from other investments is that the bank has very liquid capital, so it can come to put an operation, but you have to have the peace of mind to stay, because if not the benefit is only very temporary and perhaps it is even a loss, “says Serrano.
The analyst gives examples. 30 years ago the law was modified to attract foreign capital, which arrived but opportunistically and for a short time. “I am talking about the time of the government of Sixto Durán Ballén (1992-1996). That did more harm than good. Foreign banks have to come, but to stay; it cannot come speculatively for a short time. For that we need to give you peace of mind. In this regard, the current regime does an important job giving peace of mind to any investor ”, he says.
The Central Bank of Ecuador established the reference lending interest rates for this month of December, which range from 4.98% for the purchase of public and social interest housing to 20.74% for simple accumulation microcredits, which has been maintained so far of the regime.
“The attitude of the current regime is to stop competing, to allow those large capitals that come from abroad in search of profitability to be the ones that help lower the interest rate … With this influx of resources, a greater supply of resources , that’s naturally going to push the rate down. Everything that is intended to be done around the reduction of the interest rate and to put the financial environment in a more international environment passes by allowing the access of foreign capital to Ecuador, not restricting it. The rules can be complementary, parallel, but the law alone will not reduce rates; what will do so is the overwhelming reality of the largest source of funds, which makes competition to place them and, therefore, the rate is reduced. This is very simple and arithmetic, ”says Serrano.
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