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Foreigners Control 92% Of
Private Banks
This week the Bank of Nova
Scotia, located in Toronto,
Canada, announced its purchase
of Costa Rica's largest private
bank, Interfin, leaving only two
private banks with Costa Rican
capital.
During the last several years
international financial groups
have been acquiring private
banks in Costa Rica, that 91.7%
of assets are in the hands of
foreigners, while only 8.3% in
the hands of Costa Ricans.
In May of 2005, GE Consumer
Finance (part of General
Electric) acquired 49.9% of the
Red Financiera BAC, owner of BAC
San José bank and Credomatic.
Prior to the GE purchase, BAC
San José was known as Banco San
José, owned by the Pella family
of Nicaragua.
In April of 2005, the Banco
Popular de Puerto Rico announced
its interest and purchase of 20%
of Corporación BUC internacional
(Cuscatlan). The deal fell apart
two months ago. Cuscatlan is
owned by interests in El
Salvador.
The general manager of the state
bank Banco de Costa Rica (BCR),
Carlos Fernández, said that
Costa Rica is a nation that due
to its size, productivity,
income per capita, level of
exports and imports, does not
require so many banks.
Fernández warns that the arrival
of so many banks in Central
America and Costa Rica in
particular strongly
threatens state banks for many
reasons. Fernández,
compared the arrival of private
banks as a "tiger" with strong
financial muscles that the state
banks cannot compete.
Former Hacienda (Revenue)
minister, Thelmo Vargas, added
that the state banks are facing
an enormous competition in such
things as banking products and
with leaner operating costs.
For his part, former head of the
Banco Central de Costa Rica (BCCR)
- the central bank, Eduardo
Lizano, the Scotiabank purchase
of Interfin is of great prestige
to the country, in that it will
surely attract more foreign
investment and that from the
point of view of products and
services, it will force state
banks to "waken up".
Eight years ago there were 26
banks in Costa Rica. Today there
are 17. Experts say that within
several years there may be less,
but stronger and more powerful.
| Private
Banks in the hands of foreigners |
|
Banco |
Capital |
Assets |
| Interfin-Scotia |
Canada |
us$1.165.000.000 |
| Banex |
Panama |
us$
758.000.000 |
| BAC San José |
United States |
us$ 733.000.000 |
| Cuscatlan |
El Salavador |
us$
444.000.000 |
| Promérica |
Nicaragua |
us$ 205.000.000 |
| Lafise |
Nicaragua |
us$
174.000.000 |
| Citibank |
Unites States |
us$ 87.000.000 |
| Uno |
Panama |
us$
76.000.000 |
| Cathay |
China |
us$ 41.000.000 |
| BCT |
Costa Rica |
us$
103.000.000 |
| Improsa |
Costa Rica |
us$ 234.000.000 |
Source: Sugef
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Banco Interfin, founded
in 1979, has 24
branches, 36 automated
tellers and 950
employees. The combined
Interfin-Scotiabank
operation will then have
41 branches, 75
automated tellers and
more that us$1.6 billion
dollars in assets and
us$1 billion dollars in
deposits. |
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Scotiabank was founded
in Canada in 1832 and as
of April 30, 2006, it
reported us$357 billion
dollars in assets with
operations in 60
countries. |
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