por admin » Mié Dic 21, 2011 4:17 pm
El regulador de la banca Peruana esta trabajando con los bancos para reducir los intereses a los prestamos que en algunos casos llegan hasta el 120%, quiere promover la competencia y mejorar las practicas, pero dice que ponerle un techo a los intereses para los prestamos es el ultimo recurso.
La Superintendencia de Banco y Seguros quiere trabajar con los bancos en determinar el riesgo para que los intereses sean rebajados.
Peru Sees Interest Rate Ceiling as ‘Last Resort’ in Bid to Pare Loan Costs
By John Quigley - Dec 21, 2011 1:04 PM ET .
Peru’s chief banking regulator is working with lenders to bring down annual interest rates on loans that run as high as 120 percent by promoting competition and best practices, saying a cap on rates is “a last resort.”
The regulator aims to help banks assess the risk of lending to clients, enabling them to charge less for loans, the Superintendent of Banks, Insurance and Private Pension Funds, Daniel Schydlowsky, said in an interview in Lima yesterday.
“Ceilings are a last resort,” said Schydlowsky, a former Harvard University professor who was appointed Superintendent in August. “We want to bring rates down in an efficient and effective way, and we’re getting cooperation from the financial system.”
Ollanta Humala’s June 5 election as president led to calls from his party to impose a ceiling on interest rates. Humala’s campaign platform said high rates were preventing smaller businesses from obtaining credit. Chilean President Sebastian Pinera is seeking congressional approval to lower the maximum interest rate on loans to consumers and smaller businesses from above 50 percent.
If the regulator doesn’t succeed in cajoling Peru’s banks into reducing interest rates in the next two to four years, Congress may seek to impose a cap, Schydlowsky said.
Interest rates on consumer loans average 39 percent in Peru, while loans to the smallest companies carry an average 33 percent rate, according to the Superintendency’s website. Some lenders charge high-risk clients who don’t have a steady income as much as 120 percent for 90-day loans, which is “very high” Schydlowsky said. The central bank has kept its reference rate at a two-year high of 4.25 percent since June.
Not Created Equal
Lenders that lack the technology or expertise to calculate lending risks effectively charge their clients more, which encourages competing lenders with superior risk assessment to offer similar rates, Schydlowsky said.
“The bank that’s better at calculating the customer’s risk is pricing at the second- or third-best bank’s prices,” he said. “Not all banks are created equal. You don’t solve that by a ceiling. You solve it by getting the laggard bank to be swifter.”
Schydlowsky, a former Peruvian central bank director, has taught economics at Boston University and The American University in Washington and published four books. He was an economic adviser to former President Alejandro Toledo during his 2001 to 2006 term and has been a consultant to the World Bank and the United Nations.
As many as five foreign banks are likely to establish or expand operations in Peru next year, which will increase competition and eventually put downward pressure on interest rates, he said. Four lenders currently provide 84 percent of all loans, according to the country’s banking association.
The introduction of mobile-phone banking next year will help lenders lower their costs and charge less for loans, Schydlowsky said.
To contact the reporter on this story: John