As reported in El Caribe, Ram?n B?ez Figueroa, chief executive of the Grupo Interncontinental, represented by his legal counsel Marino Vinicio (Vincho) Castillo, notified the members of the Monetary Board and the Central Bank yesterday by legal document that they must adjust to legal dispositions that rule the liquidation of banks. In the document dated 12 May, the banker who identifies himself as the owner of 90% of the shares of Baninter, notifies each of the members of the Monetary Board to stop all actions underway to resolve the insolvency of the financial entity.
He states that since September 2002 (coinciding with the Pepegate scandal), pernicious rumors began to affect the reputation and the supposed strength of the bank, which resulted in massive removals of deposits in December that led to major liquidity problems. These very same problems forced the creation of the Liquidity Regularization Plan that was signed with the Superintendence of Banks on 27 February 2003.
B?ez Figueroa says that some operations that were contemplated were unfortunately frustrated by the tenacious opposition to negotiations Baninter was carrying out with a foreign bank. He also mentioned the signing of a loan with the Banco de Reservas for US$30 million on 23 January with the shares of Grupo Interncontinental, Intercontinental de Seguros and Grupo Aster Communications as guarantee.
He said the 30- to 60-day terms to resolve the liquidity problems were too short, giving way to the merger by absorption option with another banking entity, which led to the talks with the Banco del Progreso. He that said all these events were treated with hostility from the Governor of the Central Bank at the time, but concluded with the announcement of the first attempt to merge Baninter with the Banco del Progreso.
B?ez Figueroa complains that during the two-week span of the merger proceedings, the volume of rediscounts zoomed from RD$5 billion at the time of the signing to RD$16 billion at the end of the two-week takeover. He complains of the illegality of the Banco del Progreso breakup of the deal and says that the Central Bank has not appreciated his readiness to solve the conflict, preferring instead to initiate a phase of cannibalistic destruction of the interests of the Grupo Intercontinental, whereby fragmented proposals are being made without the participation of the owners of Baninter.