The authorities intervened this Wednesday Banco Fassil,
one of the largest
in Bolivia, after the apprehension of four of its executives accused of financial crimes, which generated protests from clients and the seizure of some of the branches demanding the return of your money.
The director of the Financial System Supervision Authority (ASFI), Reynaldo Yujra, explained that on the one hand a resolution was issued to
intervene the bank
for "failure to pay one and more liquid obligations" with its customers and on the other a process was opened against the detained executives.
Yujra said at a press conference that an administrator has been appointed, an adjudication process will begin for
other banks to assume customer deposits
, guaranteed "deposit protection" and financial operations are suspended for about 30 days.
"It is the first time in the history of Bolivia that the size of a bank does not allow a single bank to be able to award all these deposits," Yujra said.
Users wait in front of a Banco Fassil branch in the city of Santa Cruz (Bolivia).
Photo EFE
irregularities
Yujra indicated that on May 12 the entities that will be awarded the deposits will be known, then the operational migration process will continue, which will take about 10 days and they estimate that on May 22 the financial entities will already be able to serve the Bank's customers
. Fassil.
"It is not necessary for them to make the pilgrimage, at this moment we are precisely giving the certainty that now they do have the security that their resources are going to be transferred to other banks," said Yujra.
The government official held Banco Fassil executives responsible for the
mismanagement
that led to this situation and maintained that they were "reluctant" to the corrective measures suggested by ASFI.
"These deposits had the character of being liquid and demandable, the bank had the obligation to return the resource required by its savers, but it did not do so because it did not have sufficient liquidity," he explained.
A police officer guards the Banco Fassil offices in La Paz.
AP Photo
Within the investigation is the approval of
a loan equivalent to 1.5 million dollars
to an 18-year-old woman who has the ability to pay only 10,000 dollars, reported the Vice Minister of the Interior and Police, Jhonny Aguilera.
They are also investigating what relationship the woman has with the four executives apprehended to have benefited from that credit.
Headquarters shots
The clients of the Fassil bank who in previous days had already tried to take over some branches, especially in Santa Cruz, Bolivia's economic engine and where
that entity has the most presence
, desperately tried to take over some branches and see how to get their money , despite the fact that financial services were suspended several days ago.
In other cities of the country the panorama was not different, there are long
lines of customers and some protests
, for which the Police had to protect the headquarters of the intervened bank.
Hours before the arrest, the Fassil bank issued a statement to make "available to the public" the "real estate out of use, in use and awarded with a price in Bolivians."
The discomfort of the clients
has been going on for more than a month
when they already reported problems to make withdrawals of their money.
Bolivia has been experiencing an
unusual moment of demand for dollars
and "economic uncertainty" for almost two months, after a report from the Central Bank indicated that the Net International Reserves (NIR) reported the lowest figure since 2014.
Source: EFE and AP
bp
look too
Queues to get dollars and fear of a devaluation: What happened to the "economic miracle" in Bolivia?
Bolivia: strong protests by informal workers over a government-sponsored anti-terrorism bill