Former President Leonel Fern?ndez blamed the administration of President Hip?lito Mej?a and his PRD party for the Baninter crisis, which left the commercial bank to be appropriated by the government. In the speech on occasion of the official launch of his campaign for the PLD presidential nomination, Fern?ndez levied the responsibility for the Baninter debacle on the present authorities.
Fern?ndez said that while the government has attributed the crisis to the deceitful bookkeeping of the bank, he said the crisis was caused when the Mej?a administration did not pay capital and interest payments owed to the financial institution. He said furthermore that in September 2002, when the rumors began circulating, that he had warned that the government was contributing to a liquidity crisis in the financial system. Fern?ndez said that the peso has depreciated not because of the bank?s embezzlement but because of the incompetence of the government.
Central Bank Governor Jos? Lois Malkum spoke out to refute Fern?ndez? claim. ?The government did not owe Baninter at the time of the bankruptcy. We paid up all our debt in September when Leonel Fern?ndez mentioned there was a crisis,? he said, during a meeting with the exchange house executives to discuss the collapse of the peso.