01/2019: The Banking Sector’s Current Impasse
The remaking of PR’s economic landscape will reshape banks
The last fifteen years witnessed a remaking of PR’s banking sector that continues to unfold. The process has been largely uneven as consolidations, the bursting of a real estate bubble, an economic depression, population decline, and the default of public debt have all had a direct impact on the sector’s core capabilities and operations. In response to this, banks were forced to retrench their activities, mitigate risk, and become risk-averse. This, understandably, has resulted in a more passive sector, one that, in the future, stands to react rather than lead the creation of new economic opportunities. In this sense, unless the recovery funds are managed to create the right incentives for them to remain on the Island, the banks will simply not leverage capital to jumpstart much needed economic growth, or support development, regardless of continued interest rate hikes. The stakes at the moment could not be higher. PR must get it right this time.