In the midst of the package of financial dollar containment measures that caused a stir among the opposition, the Government launched a partial easing of inventories to operate with CCL and MEP. It is a change that will be accompanied by new chapters and that’s it one of the most sensitive points of Sergio Massa’s plan to buy time in the face of a scenario of greater pressure on exchange rates due to drought, lack of dollars and electoral uncertainty, amid tremors in global markets.
Against this backdrop, the National Securities Commission (CNV) issued a resolution on Tuesday that brokerage firms authorized (Alycs) to operate with their own registered bonds in portfolio and payable in dollars according to local regulations. In this way it began to retrace one of the restrictions born at the end of 2020 due to the inventory tightening established by Martín Guzmán and Miguel Pesce to contain the parallel dollar peak and the outflow of dollar deposits, after the expansion of the deficit Pandemic prosecutor.
The provision signed by the organization’s board of directors, chaired by Sebastián Negri -a man close to Cámpora-try to encourage Bonares’ question (AL) against the higher offer that is foreseen for the sale of these bonds (AL29, AL30, AL35, Al38 and AL41) in the hands of public entities, as ordered by an official decree this Wednesday. The idea is that the ANSthe largest holder at $2.7 billion at market valuesell them and stabilize the price of the CCL and MEP, which arises from the buying and selling of dollar bonds.
“It is enabled, made more flexible or liberalized, a restriction is removed so that ALs can be managed by Alycs in CCL and MEP. The meaning of this measure is that Bonares can be used for financial dollar operationswith the expectation that the State and its agencies, which are the main owners, can intervene in that market e reduce volatilitythe idea is that they can use the rest of the tools to become dollarized,” NVC sources said.
The economy minister finished making agreements on Wednesday over breakfast with bankers, mutual funds, insurance companies and brokerage firms. There, he detailed the three-point road map that he began to clarify Thursday with the provision by decree to exchange the dollar securities (Global or GD) in the portfolio of public organizations, the sale of Bonares into the hands of ANSeS and, lastly , The small lock open to the Alycs to operate with these securities on financial dollars, without clashing with the IMF.
The next steps of the Massa plan
The next step will be opening the tap for banks, funds and insurance companies. These institutional investors today are limited to trading in financial dollars with Bonares due to the pressure this places on the CCL. The former have a limit on the level of their position in dollarized assets and foreign currency, as well as the exposure to the public sector authorized by their parents, while the other two types of agent can operate, but with a 25% cap on its holding of foreign activities.
The idea that is now being discussed with private individuals is widen the spread so they can buy more dollar bonds or accumulate them in their reserves and wallets, provided that they cannot sell them against dollars and get cash with liquids. The details of this phase, the most “complicated”, will be defined in the next meetings with the individual sectors in April, while some organizations have already started studying the regulations and AnSeS is preparing its tender calendar together with the Economy.
The operation is not without risk. If it works, the financial dollar should go down. That’s what happened in the last two rounds, where it fell from $404 to $390, albeit with declines of up to 6% in dollar bond prices. But if demand increases more than supply or vice versa, the CCL could add further pressure. The other fear is that investors will switch from peso bonds to dollar-denominated bonds, which it would blow up the other stage of the Massa plan, ie financing the deficit with pesos from the sale of government bonds.
For savers, meanwhile, the current restrictions preventing them from buying MEPs dollars will continue for now if they maintain subsidies for public services, have purchased savings dollars in the past 90 calendar days, have refinanced peso cards or loans, have received a salary of a benefited from the ATP concessions, and benefited from the blocking of UVA mortgage installments until July 2022.
Source: Clarin
