After the devaluation, in the midst of an inflationary acceleration that will lead the December CPI to close around 30% and after the rate reduction addressed by the new board of directors of the Central Bank, theThe conditions set by the UVA have become the “last refuge” for savers. Now, the Central Bank has introduced two changes to discourage its use: it will allow banks to place “caps” on the amounts that can be placed per customer and it will increase the minimum placement time to six months.
The stock has skyrocketed this month: according to economist Amilcar Collante’s calculations, based on data published by the BCRA, It went from $240,111 million at the end of November to $423,372 last Thursday. Overall, they represent just under 3% of the stock of traditional fixed terms.
Through communication A7929, the Central Bank has established a new minimum duration for these indexed placements: from tomorrow, anyone who wants to do a fixed-term UVA in a financial institution will have to maintain this position for 180 days. The Central Bank retained the option to “pre-cancel” after 30 days, but with rates already falling by more than 80 percentage points this month and well below those of traditional fixed terms.
At the same time, the agency authorized banks to set limits on these placements: “Entities must offer to collect these deposits up to $5 million per customer and may accept them for higher amounts,” the rule states.
Although they are the most requested, They are also the most difficult to find: customers of various banks, both public and private, They complain about obstacles, limitations and even error messages when they want to create a new placement.
By definition, since their creation in 2016, “UVA fixed terms” have a minimum duration of 90 days and allow you to capitalize on inflation accumulated over that period. Initially, banks paid an additional rate to the evolution of the UVA, but with the price surge of the last four years, that additional premium has been diluted to 1% per year above the indexation accumulated over that period.
Given that the time in which the money was frozen, while it was deposited in the bank, was “long” in times of exchange uncertainty and to continue promoting this type of placements, in 2020 the Central Bank of Miguel Pesce presented the “UVA Fixed Terms” with pre-cancellable option. In this case the saver can choose to liquidate their placement after 30 days and the installment paid is lower than that of the traditional fixed term.
Until last Thursday, banks were obliged to offer this type of placement to “human persons” without any type of amount limit.
For months, the institutions, not having an “asset” to place those pesos – since the stock of UVA credits practically evaporated after 2019 – have begun to discourage their use. Not only did they stop promoting them, but they also decided to “hide” or “turn off” the feature which allows the bank’s customers to establish a UVA fixed term in digital channels, both in banking apps and on homebanking platforms.
One of the first requests from the banking sector to Santiago Bausili once he became president of the Central Bank was to limit the placement of this type of product. The entities warn that due to skyrocketing inflation, the risk of “mismatch” is very high.
The first change that Bausili authorized was stop imposing a nominal minimum annual fee for pre-cancellable options and the banks responded with a sharp adjustment: Pre-cancellation rates went from an average of 122% per year to 50% per year in just 10 days.
At the same time, complaints are growing from bank customers who encounter obstacles and difficulties in setting a fixed deadline. Susana, a 70-year-old retiree, told this newspaper that her bank only allowed her to establish a UVA fixed term for an amount under $500,000. Oscar, a client of another bank, discovered that he could not have placements exceeding $1 million.
Source: Clarin
