The Central Bank of Costa Rica published its 2025 Annual Financial Stability Report, concluding that the National Financial System maintained adequate solvency and liquidity through 2025 despite heightened international uncertainty and earlier domestic shocks. Macroprudential stress tests indicate an acceptable capacity to absorb adverse shocks over a 12-month horizon across credit, market, liquidity, refinancing, liquidation and contagion risks. Within the Regulated Financial Intermediation System, private-sector credit growth slowed in 2025 but still rose faster in real terms than gross domestic product; domestic-currency credit growth eased to 3.6% in December 2025 from 5.7% in December 2024, while foreign-currency credit growth slowed to 6.3% by end-2025 after peaking at 13.4% in August 2024. Lending to borrowers with foreign exchange exposure decelerated to 3.5% by end-2025 from a 22.9% peak in November 2024, influenced by the lower relative cost of borrowing in domestic currency and prudential criteria introduced from 2023 to classify borrowers with and without foreign exchange exposure. The report highlights a rebound in consumer and credit card lending and longer residual maturities in consumer credit, while asset-quality indicators were broadly stable at the system level, with broad delinquency around 11% and loans more than 90 days past due and in judicial collection around 2%, although delinquency in colones rose mainly due to deterioration in consumer and card portfolios. The Central Bank is monitoring rapid credit growth in these segments, increased reliance on very short-term deposits and funding maturity mismatches, and is strengthening methodologies to assess cyber and extreme-weather risks; it also points to work on the financial safety net, including a diagnostic to support improvements to its lender-of-last-resort framework and a revised draft bill to reform the deposit insurance and resolution law, alongside prudential rule updates adopted by the National Council for Supervision of the Financial System.
Central Bank of Costa Rica 2026-04-07
Central Bank of Costa Rica publishes 2025 Financial Stability Report confirming adequate solvency and liquidity while monitoring consumer credit risks
The Central Bank of Costa Rica’s 2025 Financial Stability Report finds the National Financial System maintained adequate solvency and liquidity, with stress tests showing capacity to absorb adverse shocks over 12 months. It notes slowing but positive private credit growth, a rebound in consumer and card lending, broadly stable asset quality, and rising colones delinquency in these portfolios. The Bank is monitoring rapid credit growth, funding maturity mismatches, and short-term deposits, and is strengthening its approaches to cyber and extreme‑weather risks, lender-of-last-resort tools, and deposit insurance and resolution reforms.