The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, met this afternoon at the Palacio de Hacienda, with a dozen representatives of national banks and international capital, before whom he presented his proposal for the “reordering of the public debt”, which foresees the implementation of a new exchange for maturities of bonds in pesos maturing in the next three or four months.
In the meeting, which began at 12 and ended after 1, Massa was accompanied by the Vice Minister of Economy, Gabriel Rubinstein; the head of advisers to the Ministry, Leonardo Madcur; and the president of the Central Bank, Miguel Pesce.
The Secretary of Finance, Eduaro Setti; the second vice president of the central bank, Lisandro Cleri; and the Undersecretary of Financing, Leandro Toriano.
During the meeting, in which the only speaker was Massa, the head of the Palacio de Hacienda explained the guidelines of the new exchange and remarked that it was to “remove uncertainty” about the maturities of 2023, sources from the banking sector told Télam. .
In this sense, Massa told the bankers that this afternoon there would be an announcement about a “voluntary” exchange offer for the debt in pesos that matures in the second quarter of the year, for securities maturing in 2024 and 2025.
As reported, the Government would offer to refinance between 70% and 80% of the maturities, with CER bonds (tied to the evolution of inflation), and the remaining 20-30% would be exchanged for a dual bond, with inflation coverage or value dollar, all by 2024 or 2025.
The exchange thus appears as a solution to clear maturities that in the next four months amount to 12.3 trillion pesos.
On the banks side, the president of the Argentine Banking Association (ABA), Claudio Cesario; the head of the Argentine Capital Banks Association (Adeba), Javier Bolzico; the general manager of Banco Macro, Gustavo Manriquez; the CEO of Banco Santander, Alejandro Butti; the general manager of ICBC, Alejandro Ledesma; the owner of Credicoop, Carlos Heller; the HSBC treasurer, Federico Alcalde Bessia; the general manager of Banco Galica, Fabian Kon; the president of Banco Patagonia, Oswaldo Perré dos Santos; the president of BBVA, Martín Zarich; the Finance Manager of Banco de Santa Fe, Lenticia Canclini; and the director of Banco San Juan, Claudio Canepa.
Yesterday, the leading economists of Together for Change (JxC), Hernán Lacunza, Luciano Laspina and Guido Sandleris, came out to criticize the reports of the initiative, which led to the exchange of bankers, aware of the details of the proposed operation. To this was added a statement released by the parliamentary blocs of Together for Change.
This morning, the Chief of Staff, Agustín Rossi, came out to answer them: “The same people who ‘defaulted’ the debt in pesos when they governed are trying to destabilize with a statement a month. The debt swap in pesos gives certainty and predictability to the economy Argentina,” he said through his Twitter account.
The document issued by the JxC blocks, issued yesterday, warned about “the serious risks involved in the debt swap being prepared by the Ministry of Economy.”
In response, the interblock of national senators from the Frente de Todos (FdT) reiterated their request for “responsibility and seriousness” to their peers, whom they accuse of “sowing anxiety and uncertainty” in the face of each decision of the national government.
Meanwhile from the opposition, Lacunza said, through his social network twitter, that “the Government is preparing a debt swap with the banks”, which he defined as “a vile and ruinous operation for the State”.
Sandleris, for his part, considered, also through twitter, that it would violate the Organic Charter of the BCRA.
Meanwhile, the president of the Association of Argentine Banks (Adeba), Javier Bolzico, defended the initiative by arguing that “the proposed debt swap is for titles (not for holder).”
