Dominican Republic banks post robust Q2 figures

Santo Domingo..- Dominican Republic’s banks closed thesecond quarter with high solvency, reduced past due loans –NPL-, and high financialstrength, the Commercial Banks Association (ABA) says in a report using officialfigures.

It said solvency in the first eight months was 15.5%, or 55%above the Monetary and Financial Law’s provisions. “This is an outcome linkedto increased technical assets of RD$16.1 billion during the period, from RD$128.9billion in December 2015 to RD$145.0 billion as of August 2016.”

The open deposits totaled RD$168.9 billion and deferred depositswere RD$189.3 billion, or RD$17.5 billion more and RD$3.3 billion respectively,ABA said.

Also heralding banks’ robust growth was that NPLs was only1.6% with a coverage of 174%, indicating that for every peso in default, thebanks had RD$1.74 in reserves for coverage. “The small proportion ofnonperforming loans implies that bank customers adequately fulfill theirobligations.”

The banks association also reported total assets of RD$1.25trillion as of August 2016, or RD$73.3 billion and 6.2 % higher than the 5.85% postedin the same period last year.

The ABA adds that the gross loan portfolio grew 2.4%, fromRD$725.5 billion in December 2015 to RD$742.7 billion in August 2016. Thisrepresents an absolute increase of RD$17.2 billion.

Liabilities climbed from RD$1.06 trillion in December 2015to RD$1.12 trillion as of August 2016, a RD$63.6 billion jump, or 6%.