
The Central Reserve Bank of Peru plays a crucial role in the country's monetary policy. It is responsible for maintaining the stability of the exchange rate and the value of the Peruvian sol.
The bank operates independently, free from any government interference. This allows it to make decisions based on the best interests of the economy.
The Central Reserve Bank of Peru's regulatory framework is designed to promote financial stability and prevent systemic risk. This includes supervising and regulating financial institutions to ensure they operate safely and soundly.
The bank's operations are guided by a clear set of rules and regulations, which are outlined in the Peruvian Banking Law.
Monetary Policy
The Central Reserve Bank of Peru plays a crucial role in maintaining financial stability in the country. Its monetary policy is designed to promote economic growth and low inflation.
The Central Reserve Bank of Peru uses a variety of tools to implement its monetary policy, including setting interest rates. It also uses reserve requirements to regulate the amount of money that commercial banks can lend.
In 2020, the Central Reserve Bank of Peru set its benchmark interest rate at 0.25% to stimulate economic growth. This rate has remained low to encourage borrowing and spending.
The Central Reserve Bank of Peru also uses open market operations to buy and sell government securities. This helps to absorb excess liquidity in the market and manage inflation expectations.
By implementing these monetary policies, the Central Reserve Bank of Peru has been able to maintain a stable financial system and support economic growth.
Global Economic Impact
The collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 had a ripple effect on emerging economies, including Peru, where sovereign bond yields skyrocketed to around 10 percent for a few weeks.
The QE policy led by the Federal Reserve generated capital flows toward emerging market economies, attracted by the nominal rates on domestic Treasury bonds. This trend was clear in Peru starting in October 2010.
Peru's 10-year Treasury bond yield jumped from around 4 percent to 6 percent in May 2013, after Chairman Ben Bernanke hinted at tapering the Federal Reserve's asset purchase program.
The nonresident holdings of Peruvian Treasury bonds peaked at 6.3 percent of GDP in May 2014, but domestic institutional investors absorbed the remaining bonds, ensuring a smooth transition.
The Peruvian government continued to issue Treasury bonds that were widely accepted by capital markets, despite the shift away from sovereign bonds by nonresidents.
Bank Operations
The Central Reserve Bank of Peru is responsible for a variety of bank operations. It mints and issues metal and paper money, the sol, which is the official currency of Peru.
The bank has a significant presence in the country, with a branch in Arequipa that was established in 1871. This branch serves the city by issuing money and maintaining a good reputation for savings accounts in Southern Peru.
The bank's headquarters is located in Lima, at Jr. Santa Rosa de Lima, 441–445, 15001 Lima. The exact coordinates of the building are 12°02′53″S77°01′49″W / -12.048162; -77.030141.
The Central Reserve Bank of Peru is responsible for regulating currency and credit of the financial system. It also administers the international reserves in its care.
Here is a summary of the bank's key operations:
The bank's policies are aimed at achieving a target annual inflation of 2.0 percent, with a tolerance of one percentage point upward and downward.
Regulatory Requirements
The Central Reserve Bank of Peru has implemented various regulatory requirements to manage banks' external leverage and promote financial stability. A 50 percent special reserve requirement is in place for local banks' obligations to foreign banks with maturities of less than two years.
Banks are incentivized to lengthen the maturities of their foreign currency liabilities, reducing their vulnerability to sudden capital stops. This special reserve requirement has also been used cyclically by the BCRP.
To limit overborrowing, the BCRP has set an additional reserve requirement when the stock of long-term foreign liabilities and bonds exceeds 2.2 times a bank's net worth.
Bank's Requirements
Bank's Requirements are in place to maintain a stable financial system. The Central Bank uses reserve requirements mainly for monetary control.
Reserve requirements play a crucial role in limiting dollarization risks. This helps to prevent a reliance on foreign currencies.
Increasing the maturity of banks' external leverage is another key function of reserve requirements. This helps to promote long-term financial stability.
By implementing reserve requirements, the Central Bank can better manage the money supply in the economy.
Requirements to Increase Maturities and Moderate Leverage
In Peru, the BCRP extended the use of reserve requirements to banks' short-term foreign liabilities in 2007. This move induced banks to lengthen the maturity of their external liabilities.
A 50 percent special reserve requirement is currently in place for local banks' obligations to foreign banks with maturities of less than two years. This has helped reduce banks' vulnerability to sudden capital stops.
Banks increased the average maturity of their foreign liabilities from two years in 2007 to four years in 2009. The BCRP raises its level of this special reserve requirement in periods of abundant capital inflows and reduces it in response to capital outflows.

The BCRP has also used this reserve requirement to limit overborrowing. It sets an additional reserve requirement when the stock of long-term foreign liabilities and bonds exceeds 2.2 times a bank's net worth.
In addition, the BCRP sets an additional reserve requirement when credit growth in foreign currency exceeds a given limit established by the BCRP. This helps moderate banks' external leverage.
Long-term foreign liabilities are not subject to reserve requirements up to a limit of 2.2 times the bank's net worth.
Results and Analysis
The Central Reserve Bank of Peru's policies had a significant impact on the banking sector. Specifically, a 1 percentage point increase in reserve requirements led to a 0.001 increase in bank lending rates in Nuevos Soles.
The effect of this policy was also seen in the reduction of bank deposit rates in U.S. Dollars, which decreased by 0.009. This change in deposit rates is likely to have influenced the overall interest rate spread, causing it to widen.
The data shows that banks' short-term external debt as a ratio of total external debt decreased by 0.300 after the policy change. This shift towards longer-term maturities suggests that banks are adapting to the new reserve requirements by adjusting their debt structure.
Here are some key statistics on the impact of the policy:
Results
The main takeaway from the study is that increasing reserve requirements has a significant impact on lending interest rates and deposit rates.
The effect of reserve requirement changes in 2010 led to increased lending interest rates and reduced deposit rates. This is consistent with the expected effects in the literature.
A 1 percentage point increase in reserve requirements resulted in a 0.001 increase in bank lending rates in Nuevos Soles, a 0.006 increase in bank lending rates in U.S. Dollars, and a -0.009 decrease in bank deposit rates in U.S. Dollars.
The study also found that reserve requirement changes affected bank lending, with a 1 percentage point increase resulting in a -0.019 decrease in bank lending in Nuevos Soles and a -0.008 decrease in bank lending in U.S. Dollars.

The evidence suggests that banks' short-term external debt decreased by 0.300 as a ratio of total external debt after an increase in reserve requirements.
Here are the specific effects of reserve requirement changes on bank interest rates and lending:
Conclusions
Reserve requirements can be an effective tool to reduce the trade-offs created by expansionary monetary policies in developed economies in emerging market financial systems.
In particular, reserve requirements can dampen credit cycles in periods of capital inflows and reduce their expansionary effects on domestic aggregate demand. This was observed in Peru's experience.
The benefits of active use of reserve requirements include reducing the probability of a financial crisis, which can be a major concern in emerging market economies.
However, reserve requirements also generate efficiency costs, which can affect the degree of financial development. These costs are of second-order magnitude compared to the benefits in economies like Peru.
Reserve requirements can also speed up the development of domestic capital markets by increasing the cost of financial intermediation through the banking system.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Reserve_Bank_of_Peru
- https://www.centralbanking.com/organisations/central-reserve-bank-of-peru-bcrp
- https://www.elibrary.imf.org/view/book/9781513599748/ch013.xml
- https://oxfordbusinessgroup.com/articles-interviews/obg-talks-to-julio-velarde-governor-central-reserve-bank-of-peru-bcrp-2-interview
- https://gfmag.com/features/julio-velarde-flores-peru-central-bank/
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