What will happen to people's savings in banks sanctioned by the United States?

Former Condusef head Mario Di Constanzo offered an assessment of the Treasury's intervention in the banks Intercam and CIBanco, along with the brokerage firm Vector, after they were accused by the United States of laundering money for drug trafficking groups.

Di Constanzo explained that the Institute for the Protection of Bank Savings (IPAB) has a Deposit Insurance Policy, to which banks pay quarterly installments. This money will be used to cover the accounts of small and medium-sized savers in the event of bankruptcy , up to 400,000 UDIs, approximately 3.4 million pesos.

Once this amount is exceeded, as proposed by former Governor Rubén Moreira, a customer with 4 million pesos will have to wait for the bank to be liquidated, the remaining balance to be sold, and the portfolios to be recovered, leaving them owing 600,000 pesos.

"It's very difficult for me to recover it."

He warned that if the amount covered exceeds 3.4 million pesos, clients risk not recovering their entire investment "because not all of their money is covered."

He stated that people who have a trust fund in a bank are not insured, "it's very likely they won't even be able to afford chewing gum."

Di Constanzo responded to Moreira by saying that an investment fund would not be insured either, "because it's also stock market investments, and those aren't covered."

Currently, the IPAB reports 106 billion pesos, of which Di Constanzo estimated that some 46 billion pesos would be spent by CIBanco and 40-42 billion by Intercam.

"Just over 80 percent of this fund would be depleted, so if the same thing eventually happened to another bank, there would be no more money."

The expert added that IPAB must ask Congress for authorization to borrow and fulfill its obligations, in case the savings need to cover clients of other banks.

"This would generate a mini-Fobaproa or a Maxi-Fobaproa."