According to the FDC, the Dominican Federation of Merchants, none of its members can be classified as anything above a “D” according to the new guidelines for risk and asset qualification set out by the Central Bank at the urging of the IMF. Because of this the FDC is asking the Central Bank to revise the policy. The FDC press release, handed out by Ivan de Jesus Garcia, says that its members are the best at paying their debts and they are classified as D in the new asset guideline. Because of this classification, the banks have to make 20% to 40% provisions for loans to the sector. Garcia said that any loan to the merchant sector is much higher than it needed to be. He pointed out that an auto loan was available at 15.5% A.P.R. because consumer loans are not governed by the new asset guidelines. On the other hand, merchants who want to modernize their stores or increase their inventories have to pay a loan at 36% APR. Garcia argues for business loans to merchants to be pegged at near that 15% mark, since he feels that the Asset Evaluation rules are nowhere near the current reality and need to be revised as soon as possible.
Banking Superintendent Rafael Camilo has explained that the new ruling accepts as valid only the statements submitted by companies to the Department of Taxes (DGII) for qualifying the risk rating of a company. In the past, companies were able to submit a different set of statements to the banks to support their ability to pay back the loan.