The Association of Commercial Banks (ABCRD) wasted no time in responding to charges by PRD presidential candidate Hipolito Mejia that the government has negotiated more than DR$1 billion in "illegal" loans. Jose Manuel Lopez Valdes, president of the organization, stated that "we are strictly respectful of the law." If we had violated it by making such loans, "the Bank Superintendent would have called it to our attention, because that’s his job," said Lopez Valdes. The only law affecting such loans, he contended, has to do with the length of a public sector loan, which may not exceed seven years. These contentions were echoed by Celso Marranzini, head of the Private Enterprize Council (CONEP), who also stated that banks who lend to the state do so with the certainty that they will be repaid.
