“I’m telling the country’s private bankers, ‘he who slips up loses, I’ll take over the bank, whatever its size,’“ he said.
“You want me to nationalize the banks?” he said in his weekly Sunday television show ‘Alo Presidente.’ “I have no problem with that.”
He said banks wanted to “collect people’s money … to make more money.” He added that the purpose of banks was not to enrich a minority of the populace but rather help the development of the country.
In power for a decade, Chavez has nationalized broad swathes of the economy. In July, the government took control of Spain’s Banco Santander unit, Banco de Venezuela, for a purchase price of $1.05 billion.
On Nov. 20, the bank seized four small banks, accounting for about 6 per cent of Venezuela’s deposits.
Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez then said the takeovers were due to concerns about credit portfolios, problems explaining the source of funds and failure to comply with some obligations.
Chavez spoke yesterday from nationalized farmland in central Lara state, from where he broadcast his multihour show.
Addressing the banking theme, he said unnamed bankers “are not complying, they do not want to comply with the function for which a bank should exist (such as) that is in the law.
