Thus, the boxes will be able to issue Credit cards con interest rates between 25% and 35%, depending on the client’s risk, a cost lower than that charged by banks today for the same product, said Jorge Solís, president of the Peruvian Federation of Municipal Savings and Credit Banks (FEPCMAC).
In this line, the specialist projected that the greater competition in the market generated by the new participants (cajas) would lead the banks to moderate the high rates reported by their credit cards.
The average rate of bank plastic is 59.72% to date, according to data from the Superintendence of Banking, Insurance and AFP (SBS).
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The federation commented that initially they will prioritize cards for the micro and small businessalthough it emphasized its attractiveness for participating in the consumer segment, which represents 30% of its clients.
“First we are going to come up with a limited product, only for our clients, since we have prospected them and we know their level of risk, but in the medium term we will scale up the card, even to those who are not part of the box,” Solís said.
While, Sergio Urday, professor of Economics at Saint Ignatius of Loyola UniversityHe commented that the banks would evaluate a downward adjustment of their card rates to compete with the savings banks, as long as these microfinance institutions follow a phased and healthy implementation of said product.
If the savings banks start this process by granting cards to users they already know, there will be a positive learning curve, customers will be able to be instructed in the correct use of this financial instrument and entities will be trained in the risk management of this new product. in his portfolio, said the former head of Economic Studies at Asbanc.
However, he argued that there are other factors to be monitored by the savings banks are the provisions that financial institutions must make to prevent defaults from skyrocketing, a cost that is usually high for the bank.
“Competition is always good, but the credit risk of a credit card is enormous because it does not have a deposit or guarantee behind it. If the savings banks cannot manage it, they will tend to raise their rates despite having started at low levels,” warned Urday.
regulated product
For his part, Solis emphasized that credit cards will be supervised by the SBS, as is the case with all its products and services.
The Superintendency supervises all the products of the microfinance and will continue to do so, ensures that they are managed in the most efficient and rational way so that they do not endanger the stability of the system or the users, he explained.
“The law even establishes 60 days to publish a regulation, which will be prepared by the SBS, and today we ask that this regulation be rational but not restrictive, in favor of competition that benefits the client,” he said.
Despite this, Urday showed his disagreement with the irruption of Congress on the Finance system, when it has a strict and efficient regulator. They are granting authorizations through political means that could not be obtained through technical means, he warned.
“What the parliamentarians do apparently sounds good, they equalize the treatment between the financial entities, but they have already intervened with the rate cap And now with the issuance of cards, what will they seek to regulate later? That is what is worrying”, he said.
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Incorporation of strategic partners
This law also allows municipal savings banks to incorporate strategic partners to strengthen their assets and operating capacities.
“Caja Huancayo possibly incorporates the Inter-American Development Bank (BID) in April and there are other cajas that are also following the same steps, organizations like this one and the world Bank they show a lot of interest in microfinance institutions,” announced Jorge Solís, from FEPCMAC.
According to the executive, the cajas ediles could achieve a 15% participation in the financial market in the next five years, with this leverage, which today reaches 9%.
