He President of Banco Republica, Salvador Ferrer, spoke in favor of the merger with the hipotecary Banc What does he propose? Executive to resolve the situation of 2,500 BHU debtors, considering that “it is not a reduction measure” and even described it as an initiative that will promote “the development of the real estate market.”
The initiative announced by the Senator Germán Coutinho, from the Colorado Party, it garnered criticism from the Mortgage Bank authorities. However, Ferrer highlighted the political will of the government and considered in statements to El Espectador that “it is a proposal of solution to a historical problem.
For the BROU owner, this “synergy” will allow Uruguay have “a much more active player in the mortgage sector”, which will help the development of the market. In this sense, he elaborated: “I don’t see losses or disadvantages.”
When evaluating the data from the bank, he assured that private banking grew considerably more than the BHU during the last 10 years in the granting of mortgage loans. “The BHU placed 60% of the volume of the mortgage loan; today it is around 25% ”, he detailed.
For Ferrer, it will provide solutions to customers and will not imply loss of work
When specifying the impact on customers and employees, Ferrer considered that people will be able to access services more easily, since the BHU has only 7 branches and the BROU has more than 100. “It certainly offers a much more relevant business opportunity,” he explained.
At the same time, he noted that “It is not a bilge measure, It is a measure of going much further in what is the development of the mortgage market”. Regarding officials, he stated: “Perhaps there are a small handful of managerial functions that are duplicated and it is an issue to be resolved, because there will be no loss of jobs.”
The arguments for and against
The bill, which would be presented in the course of this month, has the endorsement of the Executive that heads the President Luis Lacalle Pou. One of the promoters Senator Sergio Botana justified the merger by ensuring that “it is not justified to have state structures that do not fulfill functions” and criticized the existence “270 officials to give four credits per day.”
For Botana, workers must have “higher productivity” and questioned that the BHU requires “double what is charged for a mortgage loan in the private market” and sentenced: “It’s a real murder of the people.”
For his part, hethe president of Banco Hipotecario, Casilda Echevarría, established his position: “We do not share the position of legislators to forgive debts that have been legitimately contracted”.
Regarding the amount of the clients’ debt, he stated that “they have been extended over time, only because Banco Hipotecario has tried to maintain a quota that these people can pay”. “By maintaining a quota that sometimes it is even less than a rent, logically that lengthens in time”, he maintained.
Source: Ambito
