State Bankers Urge
Legislators For Quick
Passage To Bill To
Loosen Credit
The presidents of the
three state banks are
urging legislators to
quickly approve the "ley
de capitalización"
(Capitalization law) of
their institutions, due
to the pressing nature
of the economy.
Luis Carlos Delgado of
the Banco de Costa Rica
(BCR), Álvaro García of
the Banco Nacional (BN),
and Álvaro Enrique Dengo
of the Banco Crédito
Agrícola de Cartago (Bancrédito),
met yesterday with the
president of the
Legislative Assembly,
Francisco Antonio
Pacheco, to press on the
issue.
According to the bank
presidents, the ideal
would be that
legislators approve the
plan within a week.
On Monday the government
signed an initiative to
be approved by
legislators to pour
us$117.5 million dollars
into the state banks
(us$50 million each for
the BCR and BN and
us$17.5 million to the
Bancredito), to shore up
the banks position to
allow more credit
without risking their
assets.
What the move means that
both the BCR and BN can
now infuse the economy
with us$500 million more
credit and us$175
million for Bancredito.
Following the meeting,
Delgado said that in
Europe and North
America, "bail outs"
occurred in hours and
days and hopes that
legislators will approve
this plan quickly.
Delgado added that the
state banks are lending
but are restricted to
the amounts, ¢20 billion
colones a month for the
Nacional, ¢16 billion
for the Banco de Costa
Rica and ¢9 billion for
the Bancredito.
The bank president said
that in the United
States, legislators
worked into the wee
hours and including
Sunday to pass the plan
to bail out Citi. |
