Santo Domingo.- Central banker Hector Valdez Albizu on Thursday said he was “surprised” at National Council Business (Conep) president Manuel Diez Cabral’s statements that the entity should halt its financial intermediation.

He said from the conceptual standpoint Diez’s statement is an "Olympic slip" by a professionally trained person and who plays an important role as leader of a business elite.

Valdez said the Central Bank hasn’t conducted direct transactions with the public for nearly three years and its interventions are mostly with financial intermediaries and institutional investors. "The business leader should be aware that on September 2, 2009 the Monetary Board decided on to close the window placed directly with the public."

He noted that the operations were suggested by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the 2003 crisis as a way to accelerate the process of reducing the then excess liquidity, as the result of the salvage of banks.

Quoted by listin.com.do, Valdez said that what remains for the public to cash in, as the result of the direct placement via window made starting with the crisis of 2003, is only 4% of the total outstanding balance Central Bank issues. He also said that the remnant of the certificates placed for the public would mature in the coming months, culminating a process which he affirms began with the banking crisis.

As a reminder, which Valdez said Diez should know, is that financial intermediation involves routinely developing deposits from the public to put them toward loans and investments. "That definition which is stipulated in the Monetary and Financial Law is elementary and of general reach worldwide."