For the first time in Javier Milei’s government, banks raised the rates of their fixed terms

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Due to these cuts, the BCRA eliminated the minimum rate of return that banks had to guarantee to their clients so that they compete. This brought interest rates up to 10 percentage points below the monetary policy rate, thus ending the liquidation of fixed terms as an instrument for safeguarding value.

Now, after the drastic reduction in traditional fixed-term rates at the beginning of 2024, a change in trend has begun to occur in recent weeks.

As stated Solange Rial in Ambit This Tuesday “from a floor of around 30%, some entities decided to slowly raise these yields, based on the reference represented today by the rates of Capitalization Letters (Lecaps) in the market.”

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As private entities no longer have the obligation to pay a minimum rate, the returns on fixed terms are about 10 points below this reference figure. However Some banks have now begun to limit this spread, thus adjusting traditional fixed-term rates upwards. Thus, for example, Banco BBVA, which once paid 28% TNA, now raised it to 36.5%. Banco Macro also increased it by two percentage points, from 30% TNA, to 32% TNA.

For the economist Jorge Neyro “it is likely that “The banks began to take the Lecaps rate as a reference.”. As published by Grupo SBS, in its report on Friday at the close of the market, the TNA of the Lecaps remained at levels between 41.34% TNA (June) and 65.40% TNA (March).

“As is well known, the Central Bank is cleaning up the balance sheet. The entity is strongly reducing monetary liabilities. The idea is to allow the monetary policy rate to be published and for banks to begin to be governed by the Lecaps rate to remunerate fixed terms,” Walter Morales of Wise Capital told Ámbito.

Treasury Lecaps have been in high demand in recent weeks because, at this time, it is the instrument that pays the best rate, taking into account a conservative profile. In fact, several Management Companies launched T+0 Common Investment Funds composed entirely of Lecaps.