While bank capital adequacy ratios appear comfortable (averaging 25.4 percent as of end-2016), non-performing loans remain high and bear close scrutiny, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said yesterday.
Expanding on its Article IV consultation with Guyana in May and following an executive board meeting, the IMF said “..non-performing loans remain high, at 12.9 percent of total loans at end-2016 from 11.5 percent at end-2015 and provisioning remains very low (45.8 percent at end-2016)”.
Key commercial banks have reported increased numbers of non-performing loans and expanded provisioning for this though the IMF does not think this has gone far enough.
“Directors noted that the banking sector appears