Risk associated with Venezuelan commercial and universal banking

This article focuses on analyzing, from a theoretical-practical perspective, risk behavior related to credit, adjustment term and interest rates in commercial and universal Venezuelan banking as a whole for the triennium 1998-2000, years in which economic policies experienced behaviors of a different sort. Using descriptive-observational research, results revealed that this important segment of the financial sector demonstrated an exposure to adjustment term risk by obtaining liabilities consisting of short term deposits related to holding assets in medium and long-term loans. Likewise, conclusions were that good performance of the economic environment reduces the possibilities that the financial system faces credit risk, given the better financial position of the economic agents selling funds that can be loaned. Also, interest rate risk was not present in the Venezuelan banking system during the period under study, given the disposition by monetary policies to try and reduce the differential between active and passive interest rates, without allowing this differential to become negative for this important sector of the Venezuelan financial system.