Chairman: Rio's consumer loan demand at 60%

Consumer loan demand at the Argentine subsidiary of Spain's SCH (NYSE: STD) currently stands at 60% of pre-crisis levels during the 1997-2001 period, local daily Clarin quoted Banco Rio de la Plata's (Rio) chairman Enrique Cristofani as saying. Argentina's loan market was practically wiped out last year due to the severe economic and financial crisis in 2001 and 2002. However, this year an incipient economic recovery and a stable political situation have seen lending return on a limited scale. Rio has registered a daily demand for consumer loans of 58,000 pesos (US$19, 600) or 40mn pesos a month, Christofani said, adding that figure rises to 60mn pesos when mortgage and other loans to individuals are included. Christofani said that loan demand from small-and medium-sized enterprises has also picked up in the last couple of months, which prompted the bank to launch a dollar-denominated pre-shipment credit line for exporters. Rio is one of Argentina's three biggest private banks and SCH is the largest financial group in Latin America and Spain.