by Rod Hughes
The international megabanks are going head-to-head to woo the small depositors and businesses in Central American and Panama, the daily paper La Nacion revealed today. Meanwhile, mid-sized international banks have been engaged in a sort of feeding frenzy.
Scotiabank bought out Banco Interfin. The BCT Corporation under direction of the respected Costa Rican financier, Leonel Baruch, absorbed the Compañia Financiera Londres with its Costa Rican capital.The London-based giant HSBC is in Costa Rica in a big way, planning to open 100 branches in the next five years.
Why all the interest in this region suddenly? “Central America, Panama and Colombia is a very attractive region. There’s economic and political stability,” Alastair J. Bryce, manager of HSBC International Bank, told the paper, adding competition among banks is relatively low, giving an enormous growth potential to banks that can offer new programs.
Robert H. Pitfield, executive vice president of Scotiabank, was frank about his ambitions for his institution. “Our principal objective is to be number one,” he told the paper, “To be the best bank in Coswta Rica by offering quality, personalized service…”
Both bankers shrewdly mentioned to the paper fast, efficient service, since this is the Achilles Heel of the national banking system. Although friendly once the customer reaches the teller’s window, they are plagued with long waiting lines, especially around the first and 15th of each month. On the other hand, they have expanded their offerings since private banks were allowed to compete with them a couple of decades ago, accepting payments of utility bills, for example as well as Internet bill-paying service. And they offer guarantees against a bank failure by being backed by the government, as investors in Banco Anglo-Costarricense learned to their relief when the bank collapsed because of sleezy manipulations by the top officials.
But the megabanks intend to offer easier access to credit for the less moneyed depositor and other incentives for small and medium business.
But banks are not the only financial establishments with their eyes set on the region, the English-language weekly The Tico Times revealed last Friday.
Two financial service companies are making Costa Rica its regional base: SC Riesgo, a 10-year-old Costa Rican company about to embark on a regional basis to provide financial risk assessments to investors in banks, funds, stocks and bonds, while PiP Centroamerica will offer pricing services.
Much of this financial interest in the region comes from changes in the countries’ banking laws that open up competition, as Costa Rica eliminated its antiquated state bank monopoly. “Costa Rica is the most mature market in Central America,” Gary Barquero of SC Riesgo told The Tico Times. But he worries that this country might be less attractive to investors due to the reluctance of a large sector of population to approve the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the U.S.