Today’s papers report that the legal negotiations to allow the sale of assets of Baninter, the collapsed bank, have advanced a step further, while lawyers for the Baninter Group claim that the process is illegal. The government appears to want the transaction to go through as speedily as possible, but the legal defense team for Baninter?s president, Ram?n B?ez Figueroa, is calling for the proper implementation of the laws on money laundering ? the same laws under which the government confiscated the bank’s assets to begin with. The government’s rationale for pushing the sale ahead is that the assets could lose value while they remain under government control, and that a liquidation of the holdings would aim to reduce the Baninter void?s negative impact on the GDP by 11%. Diario Libre comments that the government is treading on dangerous legal ground, and runs the risk of making major errors that could land the nation in ?a larger hole? than the one left by Baninter.
Central Bank Governor Jos? Lois Malkum told an audience at the American Chamber of Commerce luncheon yesterday that the government would not pick up the tab for money-losing ventures under the Baninter umbrella, as reported in Hoy newspaper.