After umpteen delays and postponements, the Senate yesterday finally began serious wheeling-and-dealing in the open on the important and controversial draft Monetary and Financial Code. In a five-hour session yesterday afternoon, the upper chamber of Congress approved 130 out of the 345 articles in the draft Code. The Code is one of the major economic reforms sought by the Fern?ndez Administration. It would change the rules governing the Central Bank, commercial banks, savings and loans, interest rates, financial transactions, issuance of public debt instruments (such as bonds), etc. Many of these rules are already in practice. Among the amendments made yesterday was one limiting the issuance of such instruments to certain specified instances (national emergencies, situations related to natural disasters, etc.) and only to certain parties. Among the issues purposefully avoided in yesterday’s debate were the rules governing interest rates (article 84) and the role of the Central Bank Governor in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) (article 101). Disagreements over those two articles resulted in a loss of quorum in Monday’s debate on the Code, creating another delay in work on the legislation.
