Oversight Commission reactivates impeachment against Superintendent of Banks Ruth Arregui for failing to perform functions

The secretary-reporter of the Audit Commission, Santiago Becdach, this January 3, notified the Superintendent of Banks, Ruth Arregui Solano, of the beginning of the trial stage within the impeachment brought against him by the assembly member, Darwin Pereira (PK), for breach of functions.

The Pachakutik legislator presented eight accusations against Arregui that are related to non-compliance with functions in the control over the illegal capture of money, lack of control in unauthorized financial activities, debt renegotiation, claims and complaints of computer fraud, payments due to cooperation agreements, lack of control of activities in the financial system and absence of client advocates in financial institutions.

Four political trials in seven months of oversight activity by the National Assembly

In the notification, the secretary informs the official of the beginning of the request for impeachment so that within a period of fifteen days she can present her answer to the political accusations made and the defense evidence that she considers pertinent.

In the case of Big Money, whose main protagonist is Miguel Ángel Nazareno Castillo or “Don Naza”, who offered his clients the return of 90% of interest within seven days, according to the complaint by the Superintendency led by Ruth Arregui, It did not act and only did so as of June 30, 2021, when the Prosecutor’s Office proceeded to search several properties related to the case.

Pereira requested information from the Superintendency on that case in July 2021, but assures that the response he received was concise, which was limited to indicating that he made an inspection that led to the initiation of a sanctioning process, which he proceeded to notify, by means of three ballots placed in the alleged domicile of the investigated; that included Big Money in the list of unauthorized financial entities and that it was reported to the Prosecutor’s Office. But that of the inspections there are no dates, time and conclusions, that a sanctioning process was initiated, but it is not identified against whom.

Therefore, according to legislator Pereira, the Superintendency of Banks failed to comply with its responsibility to notify the Attorney General’s Office of the alleged offenders of the general prohibition to be determined in article 275 of the Organic Monetary and Financial Code.

The trial has the support of 36 signatures of assembly members, where there is an accusation called the Madera case, which refers to an alleged breach in the qualification of Jorge Madera Castillo, as the main representative of the Executive function before the Board of Directors of the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS), by failing to verify that the official had an impediment to the exercise of the position due to a personal pecuniary penalty of $ 400, issued by the same superintendency in November 2003, where a breach was evidenced not only of the regulations issued by the same control body, but to the IESS regulations, related to the granting and granting of credits.

Regarding the claims and complaints of computer fraud, the interpellant assembly member points out that on August 7, 2021, he insisted on the Superintendency of Banks to report on the claims and complaints of the users of the financial system to the private banking system, from the April 30, 2019 to April 30, 2021.

In its response, the control body pointed out that during that period of time 6,717 procedures were attended and that 3,535 would correspond to procedures attended during the COVID-19 pandemic. The legislator assures that there are complaints and claims at the national level filed against financial institutions, especially against private banks.

That the Superintendency of Banks, on July 14, 2021, reported that from April 30, 2019 to May 31, 2021, the total number of claims received by private banking financial entities, amounted to 280,613 cases.

In other words, during the first year of the pandemic in Ecuador, private banking users were compelled to take individual actions against the abuse with which private banking financial institutions were acting, said Pereira, who assures that there was omission of authorities and non-fulfillment of functions by the main authority of the Superintendency of Banks. (I)