The Financial Committee of the Assembly agreed to meet with the members of the Association on Friday 27 August in the Assembly.
Deputies from the New Ideas bench that make up the Finance Committee boasted on Friday that the parliamentary group will not negotiate “in private” with the Salvadoran Banking Association (ABANSA).
The secretary of the Financial commission, Caleb Navarro, read the piece that the Association sent to the deputies of this instance so that they met in the facilities of ABANSA the day and hour that the agenda of the deputies thus allowed it ” in order to establish cordial relations and discuss issues of interest to the financial system and the country. “
However, the chairwoman of the Financial Commission, Dania González, charged against the invitation, reiterating that her bench will not negotiate in private as they were used to doing with previous legislatures.
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“It’s very clear how the political class has worked in the past and we’re not going to lend ourselves to that, the calls are made by the chair of the commission to address issues of interest to the population,” Gonzalez said.
Earlier, on his Twitter account he had made public the letter from ABANSA in which he published that he made it clear that the Assembly “ceased to be CORPORATE, is now a CITIZEN. I do not have to go to breakfast with the banks, I am responsible for the Financial Justice of this country and I am committed to being a transparent legislator.
ABANSA, I make the calls, in front of cameras, in front of my boss (the Salvadoran people), you are already on the agenda of the Financial Commission, and not to make laws tailored to you, wait for the invitation “.
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As ABANSA’s invitation included a meeting for the deputy and three more deputies for breakfast or lunch, González hung up on this cordiality and said: “Our position is clear: we don’t have to walk around for breakfast or meeting in another place other than here (Assembly). We are not going to lend ourselves to making laws tailored to these groups, “the pro-government deputy harangued.
Later at a press conference, Navarro stated that “if before this commission was used to benefit a select group, to benefit from the non-payment of taxes to companies of his friends, this will no longer happen.”
The position of the deputies was supported by President Nayib Bukele, after the publication of an article in the newspaper L’Herald d’Hondures in which they stressed that the relationship between the banks and the Assembly has become “tense”. after González’s bet on ABANSA’s letter.
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Bukele wrote on his Twitter account that “El Salvador is no longer a banker’s estate. I’m sure the vast majority of Hondurans would want the same for this beautiful country. Too bad the narco they have as president, their government, his party and its deputies will always nail themselves to the bench. Not here. “
In the process, the businessman Javier Siman also came out, questioning the deputy González for delegitimizing and trying to denigrate the national bank. “But when do they want the bank to invest in more government debt then if it’s okay to talk? Pride doesn’t let you see that dialogue is always the best way,” Siman posted on his Twitter, to which Gonzalez responded: ” when this political failure is not in line with our legislative work it is because we are doing it WELL. “
In question, the largest percentage of securities that the state has issued in recent debt to meet its obligations that it can not cover with current income or because it spent on other destinations or because they were not incorporated in the General Budget of the Nation 2021, has been bought by banks, inclusive, the Assembly approved in June 2021 lower the level of reserve liquidity of banks.
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This mechanism is an obligation of the national bank to maintain certain percentages of reserve funds that are satisfied with the savings of people through their term or savings accounts, of this money banks are required to maintain a sum determined to reserve to face any eventuality.
In addition, it deprived the Assembly of the power to authorize the liquidity reserve margins of the financial system.
González and the other deputies of the Financial Commission expressed that they agreed to convene ABANSA for Friday, August 27, 2021. On this date, they hope to consult with them the regulatory framework for the accounting of interest on bank loans.
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“Interest continues to count on capital and never stops, the debt reaches a point that has no purpose and this must be regulated because it affects many Salvadorans,” said deputy William Soriano, of New Ideas.
Therefore, they also agreed to call on private companies, banks and government institutions to make their contributions, including the Superintendence of the Financial System, the Consumer Ombudsman and the Central Reserve Bank.
Cause and effect
Expressions such as those made this Friday to the González deputy and the rest of the deputies of the bench of New Ideas that put tension to the political climate in El Salvador, have moved away the foreign investment, has been one of the strongest questions of the political opposition .
Examples of this are the constant declines in the country’s risk rating following the dismissal of judges from the Constitutional Chamber and the Attorney General, and recently the approval of Bitcoin as a legal tender in El Salvador. Added to this is the announcement of several reforms to the Constitution of the Republic that seek to “consolidate an authoritarian-minded government,” constitutionalist lawyers have warned.