Chief of Staff Guillermo Francos spoke on Thursday on Radio Rivadavia about affair between Banco Macro and the Government. Without mentioning the name of the entity, he said that “there was a bank that exercised the put when all the banks decided to pass it on to the Treasury and a bank exercised the put for US$ 2 billion that day, which was the debt that the BCRA had to pay.”
Market reports indicated that the bank in question was Banco Macro, and yesterday the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, made this explicit.
Francos, in an interview yesterday morning, spoke first of Sergio Massa and then of the operation of Banco Macro, without mentioning it. President Javier Milei had lashed out at this institution the day before, accusing it of being a “coup-monger”. Also without mentioning it.
“The President referred to that case -said Francos about the bank that exercised the puts for US$ 2 billion in a single day-, of course each bank can do this operation and that was established by the Government of Sergio Massa, in a not very responsible way for me because if all the banks exercise the put at the same time, an economic disaster is generated, the market is filled with pesos and that obviously ends in accelerated inflation. Of course, everyone is free to do so, but coincidentally, there was only one bank that did it. It is striking.”.
Francos explained how the puts work and related them to Massa. “The banks sat on Leliqs, did the ironing and collected bills from the State and did not exercise their lending function. Doubts began to arise and the then Minister of Economy [Sergio Massa] At the suggestion of a particular bank, the story goes, he set up a put system allowing the bank to immediately recover its investment.”.
Francos referred to Sergio Massa and the operations of Banco Macro, although without mentioning him. “I said that the Helicopter Club is always open with those who put obstacles so that a government does not do well. And I was asked a specific question about Sergio Massa. [N.E.: en una entrevista en LN+] y I answered ironically that (Massa) was doing maintenance on the helicopter.The Chief of Staff also said that the puts arose during Massa’s administration as Minister of Economy “at the suggestion of a particular bank, according to history.”
Luis Caputo named the bank that President Javier Milei targeted on Wednesday, although he tried to tone down the dispute and even ended up admitting that what happened on Monday, July 1, when the markets fell after the announcement of the “second phase” of the plan, ended up being “positive.”
However, both the Chief of Staff, Guillermo Francos, and the Casa Rosada, attacked the entity. The official said yesterday about the option of the banks to exercise the put: “Everyone is free to do so, but coincidentally there was only one bank that did it. It is striking.”