Central Bank of Nicaragua publishes March 2025 banking and financial system indicators showing 9.8% deposit growth and 18.5% capital adequacy

The Central Bank of Nicaragua published its March 2025 Indicators of the Banking and Financial System (SBF), reporting continued growth in public deposits and the credit portfolio with liquidity, profitability and capital ratios remaining solid and above required levels. It also flagged a deceleration in credit growth, partly attributed to the exclusion of FAMA after it left the Superintendency of Banks and Other Financial Institutions (SIBOIF) to become a microfinance institution supervised by the National Microfinance Commission (CONAMI). Year to date, the SBF’s resource growth reflected higher obligations to the public (NIO 9,212.1 million) and equity (NIO 1,590.4 million), alongside a reduction in cash (NIO 3,150.2 million), which financed increases in gross loans (NIO 5,599.3 million) and investments (NIO 5,852.3 million) and a decline in liabilities to other financial institutions (NIO 3,250.5 million). Public deposits rose 9.8% year on year to NIO 248,219.1 million and the credit portfolio increased 17.1% to NIO 218,124.9 million; performing loans were 95.2% of gross loans and the past-due loan ratio was 1.4%. The cash and equivalents to deposits liquidity ratio was 33.5%, legal reserve requirements were over-fulfilled with end-month effective rates of 15.7% in local currency and 15.6% in foreign currency, ROE rose to 13.8% (12.0% in March 2024) and ROA to 2.4% (2.1%), while capital adequacy was 18.5% (19.0%), above the 10% legal minimum.