El 25 de julio, Banco Popular de Puerto Rico y Banco Popular North America firmaron Memorandos de Entendimiento con el Banco de la Reserva Federal de Nueva York y la Oficina del Comisionado de Instituciones Financieras de Puerto Rico, que obliga a las entidades a tomar medidas para mejorar su gestión de riesgos y la calidad de los activos. Las entidades, subsidiarias de Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP), deberán obtener autorización de los reguladores para distribuir dividendos.
“No creemos que los memorandos de entendimiento tendrá un impacto significativo en Popular”, opina Joe Gladue, analista de B. Riley &Co., quien explica que Popular “ha estado trabajando en estos temas desde hace algún tiempo y creemos que los reguladores han estado involucrados en este proceso desde hace bastante tiempo. Creemos que ninguna de las cuestiones señaladas en los memorandos han vuelto a surgir desde que los reguladores permitieron a Popular comprar a Westernbank”.
Popular ha levantado una cantidad significativa de capital en uno o dos años, incluyendo la venta de una participación mayoritaria en Evertec. También ha reducido considerablemente los niveles de los activos en problemas, asegura Gladue. “La emisión de los memorandos de entendimiento en este momento sólo puede reflejar un desfase entre las revisiones reglamentarias, las discusiones posteriores y la llegada a un acuerdo formal”.
La información la dio a conocer el banco en el formulario 10-Q sometido a los reguladores el 9 de agosto. El texto que sigue forma parte de ese formulario:
Certain Regulatory Matters
On July 25, 2011, the Corporation and BPPR entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (the “Corporation/BPPR MOU”) with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (the “FRB-NY”) and the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (the “Office of the Commissioner”). On July 25, 2011, BPNA entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (the “BPNA MOU” and collectively with the Corporation/BPPR MOU, the “MOUs”) with the FRB-NY and the New York State Banking Department (the “Banking Department”). The MOUs provide, among other things, for the Corporation and BPPR to take steps to improve their credit risk management practices, for BPNA to take steps to improve its asset quality, and for the Corporation, BPPR, and BPNA to develop strategic plans to improve earnings and to develop capital plans. The Corporation does not expect the capital plans to require the Corporation to maintain capital ratios in excess of those it currently has achieved. The MOUs require BPPR to obtain approval from the Office of the Commissioner and the Federal Reserve System prior to declaring or paying dividends or incurring, increasing or guaranteeing debt; require BPNA to obtain approval from the Banking Department and the Federal Reserve System prior to declaring or paying dividends; and require the Corporation to obtain approval from the Federal Reserve System prior to declaring or paying dividends, incurring, increasing or guaranteeing debt, or making any distributions on its Trust Preferred Securities or subordinated debt.
In connection with the resumption of payment of monthly dividends on its Preferred Stock, in December 2010, the Corporation committed to the Federal Reserve System to fund the dividend payments out of newly-issued Common Stock issued to employees under the Corporation’s existing savings and investment plans or, if such issuances are insufficient, other common equity capital raised by the Corporation. It is currently anticipated that the Corporation will receive approval from the Federal Reserve System to make dividend payments on its Preferred Stock subject to the same commitments in the future, but there can be no assurance that such approvals will continue to be received. It is anticipated that sufficient Common Stock will be issued under those plans to cover the dividend payments.
Subsequent to entering into the MOU, the Corporation received approval from the Federal Reserve System to pay regularly scheduled dividends on its Preferred Stock and distributions on its Trust Preferred Securities through September 30, 2011. The Corporation has no current intention to seek approval to resume dividend payments on its Common Stock.
