With a budget investment of USD 24.39 million for 2023, the Superintendency of Banks of Panama (SBP) intends to strengthen the supervision of reporting entities by adopting technological tools and reinforcing its highly trained human resources, informed the Superintendent of Banks, Amauri A. Castillo, during the presentation of the 2023 budget before the Budget Commission of the National Assembly.
The SBP continues executing, in a very disciplined manner, each of the activities established in the 2020-2024 Strategic Plan, developing the necessary technological means that have allowed institutional transformation and process digitalization, which will strengthen the technological structure and will ensure the implementation of cybersecurity best practices, among other projects.
The foregoing enables us to continuously improve the supervision processes, achieving efficiency, effectiveness, and speed in the application of all regulations, in accordance with the highest banking supervision standards, ensuring the stability of the financial system and, of course, banking consumer protection.
The Superintendent highlighted the regulator’s mission to remain vigilant so that banks maintain sufficiently solid and stable adequacy ratios, in accordance with regulations and best international standards, for the security and confidence of depositors and investors.
During the presentation, he provided information on the financial situation, indicating that the International Banking Center (IBC), as of June 2022, recorded total assets of USD 137.30 billion, a 6.5% growth.
So far this year, we have observed that banks began to operate based on their core business, i.e., financial intermediation, by recording a slight drop in liquid assets by 15.8% and, on the other hand, a 12.3% increase in the total net loan portfolio, also driven by the external sector.
Regarding bank financing sources, Superintendent Castillo informed that IBC deposits reached USD 98.83 billion, a year-on-year increase of USD 3.53 billion.
On the other hand, National Banking System (NBS) domestic loans recorded, as of the end of June 2022, USD 56.59 billion or a 4.4% growth versus 2021. This indicates that banks keep moving towards loan placement while they develop and implement expansion initiatives for certain business lines, which reaffirms that the financial system remains resilient.
The flow of new domestic loans granted during the first half of 2022 was 57.4% higher than that granted in the same period in 2021.
Furthermore, this entity is focused on continuing with the National Strategy for Financial Education (ENEF, for its acronym in Spanish), for which specific actions will be conducted hand in hand with the Ministry of Education (Meduca) through the implementation of a pilot plan for the inclusion of financial education at the elementary, middle, and high school levels; in the curriculum nationwide, among other objectives that will impact the educational community.
In addition, and thanks to the nonrefundable technical cooperation provided by CAF – Development Bank of Latin America, we are preparing for the design and implementation of a National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (ENIF, for its acronym in Spanish) and its interoperability with the ENEF. Through this initiative, we seek to build a financial culture in the country that contributes with the proper management of economic resources and the making of reasoned and informed financial decisions.
