Chile's banking regulator SBIF has announced its rejection of a banking licence request from Banco Progreso. Progreso plans to offer factoring, leasing, property leasing and consumer credit products from offices in Santiago and from branches in regions V and VIII.
Progreso's owners, Juan Pablo Diaz and Hernan Navarrete, filed the request on 19 December 2002. SBIF said it rejected the application on the grounds that the business plan contained "weaknesses". Diaz owns 7% of Chilean financial group Corp Group, which in turn controls Chile's sixth largest bank CorpBanca.
Progreso has equity of 400,000 UF (Chile's inflation indexed peso-denominated monetary unit), equivalent to about US$11.7m, and intends to focus on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), a segment not fully covered by Chile's larger banks. In the SME segment, Progreso planned to target companies in the machinery, transport, forestry and construction industries.
