During the month of July, deposits and credit to the private sector continued to expand in a context of moderate exposures of the financial system to the risks assumed by its activity and high coverage against possible materialization of the same. In addition to the expansion of its activity, in the first half of the year the staffing of the financial system continued to increase together with an improvement in productivity indicators. The number of bank branches and ATMs also increased.
Financing in pesos to the private sector increased 1.9% in July, driven mainly by advances and collateral loans. In the last 12 months, loans to the private sector in national currency accumulated a growth of 38% and continued to drive the year-on-year expansion of total financing (domestic and foreign currency) to companies and households. In year-on-year terms, loans to companies led the increase in total loans to the private sector, with a growth of 32.7% YoY, while financing to households increased 30.6% YoY.
In July, the non-performing loan ratio to the private sector remained stable, for the fourth consecutive month, at 1.9%. Both the non-performing loan ratio for companies and households remained in line with the values recorded last month. The financial system continued to exhibit high levels of forecasting, with a ratio between total forecasts and financing in an irregular situation that reached 133%.
The balance sheet of total deposits in pesos in the financial system increased 2.3% (29.9% YoY) in July. Among the contributions of the private sector in national currency, the dynamism of fixed terms stood out, with one of the most outstanding absolute variations in recent years – $10,055 million – equivalent to a monthly variation of 5.3%, which implies a year-on-year rate of change of 44.3%. For its part, the balance sheet of total deposits (in the private and public sectors, considering national and foreign currency) increased by 2.3% between June and July (27.9% YoY).
The liquidity indicator (pesos and dollars) of the financial system increased 1 p.p. in July to 24.7% of total deposits. If the holdings of LEBAC and NOBAC are included, the broad definition of liquidity reached a level of 37.5% of total placements. On the other hand, the coverage of short-term liabilities with more liquid assets stood at 44.3% at the end of the second quarter of 2013 (latest information available), after an increase of 0.6 p.p. in this period.
The net worth of the consolidated financial system grew 2.6% in July, driven by accounting profits. In this context, the integration of regulatory capital in the financial system totaled 13.3% of total risk-weighted assets (RWA) in the month. For its part, the capital position – the difference between integration and requirement – stood at 67.9% of the total regulatory requirement, accumulating an increase of 9.2 p.p. so far this year.
In July, the ROA of the banks as a whole stood at 3.6%a. Throughout 2013, the accumulated profits of the financial system totaled 2.8% of assets, slightly lower than those of the same period in 2012. Private financial institutions explained the reduction in ROA compared to last year mainly due to increases in accrued expenses.
