Report on Banks, November 2022

In November, financial intermediation with the private sector grew slightly against a backdrop of high liquidity and solvency levels.

Instant transfers (transferencias inmediatas (TIs)) significantly increased along 2022 (99.8% year-on-year (y.o.y.) in volume, and 18.2% y.o.y. in value in real terms), a widespread dynamic across all their components. As for TIs between bank accounts (CBU to CBU), transactions carried out through mobile banking stood out. As regards TIs involving accounts held with payment service providers (PSPs), transactions from financial institutions to PSPs (CBU to CVU) exhibited a particularly dynamic performance in y.o.y. terms. Moreover, the performance of payments by transfer (pagos con transferencia, PCTs) made by scanning interoperable QR codes was also noteworthy in 2022: 510.6% y.o.y. in volume and 375.2% y.o.y. in value in real terms. In the case of checks, ECHEQs (electronic checks) gained share throughout the year, reaching in December 57.9% of the total amount of cleared checks, up 10.6 percentage points (p.p.) y.o.y. (33.1% in volume, +10.3 p.p. y.o.y.).

In November, the stock of financing to the private sector in pesos increased 0.8% in real terms (+5.7% in nominal terms), most credit lines posting a positive performance. The BCRA has continued to promote the Credit Line for Productive Investment (Línea de Financiamiento para la Inversión Productiva, LFIP) as the main instrument to channel financing to micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) under more favorable conditions. As a result, nearly ARS3.9 trillion as of last December (ARS1.2 trillion in terms of stock—14.5% of the total stock of loans to the private sector) were granted for almost 362,000 MSMEs. In y.o.y. terms, the stock of loans in pesos posted a 11% decrease in real terms.

The stock of private sector deposits in pesos increased 1.5% in real terms (+6.4 % in nominal terms), with rises in time and sight deposits. The stock of private sector deposits in pesos remained virtually unchanged in real terms against the level observed a year ago (+0.5% y.o.y. in real terms or +93.4% y.o.y. in nominal terms).

In November, the non-performance ratio of loans to the private sector stood at 3.1% at systemic level, without relevant changes against the previous month, and decreasing 1.5 p.p. y.o.y. In November, total provisions amounted to 4% of total credit to the private sector for the ensemble of financial institutions (with no changes in November and -1.2 p.p. y.o.y.), and to 130.4% of non-performing financing (+3.7 p.p. monthly and +18.3 p.p. y.o.y.). In a broad sense, liquid assets in the financial system accounted for 73.5% of deposits in November in line with the figure of October, and up 5 p.p. against the level observed a year ago.

In November, the solvency indicators of the sector slightly increased. Financial institutions' regulatory capital (responsabilidad patrimonial computable, RPC) compliance stood at 29.5% of risk-weighted assets (RWAs), up 0.2 p.p. against the previous month (+3.8 p.p. y.o.y.). The capital position (RPC minus the minimum regulatory requirement) totaled 267% of the regulatory requirement at systemic level (up 2.6 p.p. against October and +50.8 p.p. y.o.y.), and 41.6% of the stock of loans to the private sector net of provisions.

As regards the amount accumulated in 11 months of 2022, the financial system's profitability stood at 1.7% annualized (a.) of assets (return on assets (ROA)) and 9.9% (a.) of the net worth (return on equity (ROE)), posting higher levels in y.o.y. terms but lower levels against the same period in 2020.

Download document - in Spanish -

To access previous editions, click here

January 25, 2023

Compartilo en Facebook   Compartilo en Twitter    Compartilo en Linkedin    Compartilo en WhatsApp