Implicaciones del funcionamiento del sistema bancario costarricense en la eficiencia de la intermediación financiera

Abstract

En la economía existen agentes económicos superavitarios y deficitarios. Los agentes económicos superavitarios, es decir, con ingresos mayores a sus gastos, tienen la posibilidad de invertir sus recursos o de brindar un préstamo; por su parte, los agentes deficitarios, tienen proyectos de inversión, pero no poseen la cantidad suficiente de recursos para ejecutarlos, por lo que, están en la necesidad de hallar un agente superavitario que financie su proyecto. Para que sea posible el movimiento de recursos, ambos agentes incurren en diversos costos y riesgos relacionados con la asimetría de información y la reciprocidad de voluntades en tiempo y espacio.

La intermediación financiera ayuda a mejorar la eficiencia del proceso y a reducir los costos que implica el intercambio de recursos entre los diferentes agentes económicos. Es así como, el agente deficitario recibe de un intermediario los recursos y asume el costo medido por la tasa de interés activa; por su parte, el agente superavitario otorga sus recursos al intermediario y a cambio, recibe el rendimiento de su ahorro medido por la tasa de interés pasiva. La brecha entre estas tasas de interés da origen a lo que se conoce como “Margen de Intermediación Financiera” (MIF).

La eficiencia de las entidades que realizan la intermediación financiera al captar ahorros y colocar créditos, están en función de diversos factores como: la capacidad de innovación, la organización de sus procesos operativos, la estructura de mercado en el que se encuentran, el entorno regulatorio, la gestión de riesgos, entre otros. Esta eficiencia es medida por el MIF, por lo que, una mayor brecha entre la tasa de interés activa y pasiva, se correlaciona negativamente con la eficiencia en la que incurren los intermediarios financieros al prestar sus servicios de captación de recursos y otorgamiento de créditos.

La idea es que, en un entorno competitivo, los intermediarios con el propósito de atraer agentes superavitarios tenderán a incrementar la tasa que le reconocen a los ahorrantes, mientras que, por otra parte, para poder conceder préstamos, la competencia lleva a que los intermediarios deban reducir las tasas activas. Es así como las fuerzas competitivas inducen por una parte a reducir las tasas activas y a incrementar las tasas pasivas, es la competencia la que provoca que la brecha entre tasas activas y pasivas se reduzca y que los ahorrantes busquen el mejor rendimiento para sus ahorros (dado un nivel de riesgo) y que los emprendedores de proyectos de inversión traten de reducir al máximo sus costos financieros. Es de esta forma que bajos márgenes de intermediación financiera, son coherentes con la eficiencia económica.

En el marco de la eficiencia, también es importante considerar el nivel de las tasas de interés, debido a que los agentes superavitarios buscan la mayor tasa de interés pasiva que haga máximo su rendimiento y los deficitarios, la menor tasa de interés activa para satisfacer sus oportunidades de inversión. En este sentido, una tasa de interés alta brinda un mayor rendimiento al ahorrante, pero representa una barrera para el agente demandante de recursos, ya que al tener que asumir un alto costo, puede desestimular la ejecución de proyectos de inversión cuya rentabilidad es inferior al costo financiero que el agente deficitario tiene que cubrir por el préstamo otorgado.

In the economy there are surplus and deficit economic agents. Surplus economic agents, that is, with income greater than their expenses, have the possibility of investing their resources or providing a loan; For their part, deficit agents have investment projects, but do not have enough resources to execute them, so they need to find a surplus agent to finance their project. For the movement of resources to be possible, both agents incur various costs and risks related to the asymmetry of information and the reciprocity of wills in time and space. Financial intermediation helps improve the efficiency of the process and reduce the costs involved in the exchange of resources between the different economic agents. This is how the deficit agent receives the resources from an intermediary and assumes the cost measured by the active interest rate; For his part, the surplus agent grants his resources to the intermediary and in exchange, receives the return on his savings measured by the passive interest rate. The gap between these interest rates gives rise to what is known as the “Financial Intermediation Margin” (MIF). The efficiency of the entities that carry out financial intermediation when capturing savings and placing credits, are based on various factors such as: the capacity for innovation, the organization of their operating processes, the market structure in which they are located, the regulatory environment , risk management, among others. This efficiency is measured by the MIF, therefore, a greater gap between the active and passive interest rate is negatively correlated with the efficiency incurred by financial intermediaries when providing their fundraising and credit granting services. The idea is that, in a competitive environment, intermediaries with the purpose of attracting surplus agents will tend to increase the rate that they recognize for savers, while, on the other hand, in order to grant loans, competition leads intermediaries to lending rates should be reduced. This is how the deficit agent receives the resources from an intermediary and assumes the cost measured by the active interest rate; For his part, the surplus agent grants his resources to the intermediary and in exchange, receives the return on his savings measured by the passive interest rate. The gap between these interest rates gives rise to what is known as the “Financial Intermediation Margin” (MIF). The efficiency of the entities that carry out financial intermediation when capturing savings and placing credits, are based on various factors such as: the capacity for innovation, the organization of their operating processes, the market structure in which they are located, the regulatory environment , risk management, among others. This efficiency is measured by the MIF, therefore, a greater gap between the active and passive interest rate is negatively correlated with the efficiency incurred by financial intermediaries when providing their fundraising and credit granting services. The idea is that, in a competitive environment, intermediaries with the purpose of attracting surplus agents will tend to increase the rate that they recognize for savers, while, on the other hand, in order to grant loans, competition leads intermediaries to lending rates should be reduced. This is how competitive forces induce, on the one hand, to reduce lending rates and increase deposit rates, it is competition that causes the gap between lending and deposit rates to narrow and savers to seek the best performance for their savings (given a level of risk) and that the entrepreneurs of investment projects try to reduce their financial costs as much as possible. It is in this way that low financial intermediation margins are consistent with economic efficiency. Within the framework of efficiency, it is also important to consider the level of interest rates, since surplus agents seek the highest passive interest rate that maximizes their yield and deficits, the lowest active interest rate to satisfy their needs. investment opportunities. In this sense, a high interest rate offers a higher return to the saver, but represents a barrier for the resource-demanding agent, since having to assume a high cost, it can discourage the execution of investment projects whose profitability is lower than the financial cost that the deficit agent has to cover for the loan granted.