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MEXICO CITY.-In the midst of the economic crisis derived from the Covid-19 pandemic, debts to credit cards in Mexico reached an unprecedented level.
The adjusted delinquency ratio (Imora) on credit cards, which includes late payments and overdue balances that were sold to collection companies, reached its highest level since December 2000, that is, since data exists.
The indicator even surpassed the levels of the world financial crisis of 13 years ago, a situation that, according to specialists, has not yet hit bottom and brings risks for banks.
Last January, the measurement rose to 17.95 percent, 3.52 points more than a year ago and 1.13 more than in December.
During the financial crisis that began in 2008, the highest level of delinquency was 14 percent, in May 2009.
Among the banks with the highest increase in non-performing loans are Consubanco, Scotiabank, Banca Miffel, BanCoppel and HSBC.
In turn, personal loans increased their Imora to 17.57 percent in January, from 15.78 percent a year ago and December 17.19.
In general, the consumer credit indicator, which includes both credit cards and personal loans, was 13.70 percent in January, an annual increase of 1.83 points.
Alejandro Tapia, senior director of the banking sector in Mexico at Fitch Ratings, warned that the crisis is not over yet and some credit institutions will face challenges in managing their portfolio.
Tapia said that this year the banks will have to face the real performance of their borrowers, after the payment deferral programs ended.
“The challenge that (banks) have is to control the deterioration of the quality of assets and there are also challenges in profitability,” said the specialist.
Alfredo Calvo, senior director of Financial Ratings at Standard & Poor’s agency, considered that, in general, the delinquency of the total portfolio of commercial banks is at manageable levels.
He highlighted that the banking sector presents adequate levels of capitalization and they have been prepared by increasing their preventive reserves during 2020.
Amid lack of significant business support from the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Mexican economy contracted 8.5 percent in 2020, the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s, caused by the closure of thousands of companies, it sank formal employment and drove wages down.
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