Guillermo Avellán has been at the helm of the Central Bank of Ecuador since June 2021, implementing a host of changes that the country’s government has been passing to modernise and grow the economy. He spoke to The Banker about deepening financial inclusion and implementing reforms to maintain a solid financial system.
Ecuador is striving to re-establish ties with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, tap international capital markets and embrace orthodox economic policies. However, when it comes to banking, the country's new direction is not proving to be universally popular.
Ecuador’s banks have undergone sweeping changes, as the Rafael Correa-led government seeks to redress the balance between lenders and their customers. Officials say the interventions are necessary, but with big banks hit the hardest, bankers are asking just how this regulation benefits the market.
Increasing tariffs on luxury goods and social sector government spending may not be conventional economic policy moves, but they have worked for Ecuador’s finance minister, Patricio Rivera, who has helped the country's gross domestic product to grow while reducing its poverty rate, decreasing unemployment and increasing the country's energy capacity.
Ecuador's private banks are up in arms about the effects of government intervention on their profits. The country's finance minister, however, rejects such accusations, saying that the relationship between bank and customer was in need of a rebalancing. Writer Rodrigo Amaral in Madrid