"The pandemic has been having a significant impact globally and obviously Angola is not immune to these impacts," said the head of the consultancy, on the sidelines of the presentation of the study 'The Banking Review'.
"The quality of the assets is questioned, from public debt to the investments themselves, we may have an increase in the risk of debtors and this will have a reflection on the credit granted," he estimated, underlining that "when the whole economy suffers," the banks also suffer.
On the other hand, more liquidity is also expected from banks.
"In situations of pandemic, populations have a natural appetite to have more liquidity with them, they have a tendency for their savings to be more liquid and this impacts the banks' balance sheets in a direct way", José Barata indicated.
In relation to Deloitte's analysis of Angolan banking in 2019, he noted that "there was an increase in impairment" in order to recognise, in the banks' financial statements, the risks of overdue credit, as well as a reduction in net income and credit volume, despite the increase in deposits, "which were not applied to credit, but to public debt.
At the end of the debate in which the study was presented this Thursday, it became clear, for José Barata, "the need for banks to increase credit to families and companies".
For the president of the executive committee of the Angolan Investment Bank (BAI), Luís Lelis, one of the participants in the session, there is a willingness to give more credit, but good projects are lacking to be supported.
"Banking has been criticised for only giving credit to the Government, bring us good projects", he challenged.
The banker stressed, on the other hand, that the pandemic has brought a profound change in the paradigm of doing business, forcing strong investments in system architecture and cyber-security, as well as in the creation of technical and technological conditions for the teleworking regime.
Professor Jorge Braga de Macedo of the New SBE stressed, in his intervention, that the pandemic threatens financial freedom and circulation and poses operational, liquidity and credit risks and solvency to the banks.
