Banco Sol’s chief executive, Osvaldo Lemos Macaia, called on Wednesday for a lending model grounded in prudence, rigorous risk discipline and responsible stewardship of depositors’ funds, warning that credit expansion disconnected from asset quality can threaten the stability of financial institutions.
In a statement sent to the newspaper O País, Macaia argued that any increase in financing to the Angolan economy must rest on thorough project-viability assessments, a stronger capacity to attract savings and an improvement in banks’ own capital bases — with the explicit aim of avoiding a repeat of the mistakes that scarred Angola’s financial system in recent years.
The growth of credit to the economy, the executive said, should be underpinned by rigorous analysis of project viability, safeguarding simultaneously the stability of the financial system and the confidence of depositors.
Speaking at the fifth edition of the CEO Roundtable organised by Global Corporation Services, Macaia stressed that a bank’s primary asset is not its own equity but the savings entrusted to it by clients. That reality, he said, makes lending decisions a matter requiring strict technical criteria and a continuous assessment of borrowers’ repayment capacity.
‘Credit extended by banks must be grounded in rigorous risk analysis, ensuring a responsible allocation of resources to the economy and to individual projects,’ he said.
In Macaia’s view, Angola’s recent banking experience demonstrates clearly that credit growth divorced from asset quality can undermine the long-term sustainability of financial institutions.
He recalled that the national banking system recorded extremely high levels of non-performing loans just a few years ago — a situation that compelled both the regulator and individual banks to substantially strengthen their risk-assessment and governance frameworks.
‘We know our recent past well — a period marked by very high levels of non-performing credit. Today, as a result of enhanced regulation by the regulator and improvements in banks’ capacity to assess the risks associated with investment projects, financial institutions have adopted a more prudent approach to lending. I believe that, even so, banks have been able to respond adequately to the financing needs of companies in our country,’ Macaia said.
From his perspective, the greater selectivity now evident in lending does not represent a retreat by the banking sector, but rather an evolution in its management model — one oriented towards protecting depositors’ resources, guaranteeing institutional soundness and ensuring that credit is channelled towards projects genuinely capable of generating value and honouring their financial obligations.
Macaia nonetheless rejected the notion that banks are pulling back from financing the economy. Citing data from the Banca em Análise study, he noted that credit to the economy grew by approximately 93% over the past five years, with the pace accelerating in the three most recent years — evidence, he said, that creditworthy projects continue to come forward and receive funding.
The Banco Sol chief executive also identified the main challenges facing Angola’s banking sector in its efforts to expand lending capacity. These include the need to raise savings rates, strengthen deposit mobilisation, consolidate the capital positions of financial institutions through more prudent dividend-distribution policies, and continue to promote a stable macroeconomic environment capable of inspiring confidence among investors and depositors alike.
Macaia noted that the aggregate assets of Angola’s banking sector remain relatively modest compared with those of more developed African economies, arguing that strengthening the capital base of institutions would allow them to expand, in a gradual and responsible manner, their capacity to finance strategic sectors of the economy, including the oil industry and local-content development.
The position set out by the Banco Sol chief executive reflects the strategy the bank has been consolidating as part of its institutional transformation: growing sustainably, improving the quality of its loan portfolio, protecting client resources and establishing itself as a reference financial partner for companies and investors — prioritising business sustainability over expansion driven by excessive risk-taking.
Source: O País
