The loan portfolio stood at 3,27 trillion bolívares in August, with smaller increases than those recorded in July. Financial intermediation reached 63,41%.
The loan portfolio maintained its growth trend by the end of August, reaching a total amount of 3 trillion 269.405,76 million bolívares, as a result of a 9% increase compared with July and an annualized rise of 736,9%; however, these increases were smaller than those reported in July.
According to the Banking Ranking from the consulting firm Aristimuño Herrera & Asociados, the banking system’s gross loan portfolio totaled 4.112,5 million dollars, expressed at the official exchange rate in effect, published by the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), as of the end of August.
Consequently, the growth in bank loans in August was 2.34% in real terms compared with July, while the annualized increase stood at 54.84%. The portfolio, expressed in dollars, rose more than in the previous month, but the same did not happen in the year-on-year period.
Despite the sustained increase in the flow of bank loans to the economy, the supply of loans in Venezuela can still be considered very limited when compared with the rest of the Latin American countries.
Recent data reveal, for example, that in Colombia bank loans exceed 170 billion dollars; in Chile they rise to more than 250 billion, and in Peru they stand at around 105 billion—just to cite cases that show the very low size of Venezuela’s banking loan portfolio.
Intermediation continues to rise
The financial intermediation coefficient of the national banking system closed August at 63.41%, 2.17 percentage points higher than in July, and 10.75 whole numbers above the indicator for the same month of 2025.
Despite the liquidity constraints faced by the banking system, the evolution of financial intermediation shows that banks are still maintaining their line of fulfilling their basic function of funding economic activity.
In fact, in the most recent Qualitative Survey of Business Chambers by Fedecámaras, bank credit fell on the list of main risks faced by the domestic private sector in the second quarter of the year, dropping from 14.40% in the first quarter to 12.50% as the biggest problem for the business groups participating in the poll.
Income from the credit portfolio and delinquency
Meanwhile, in August the banking sector generated 57.5% of its income from credit activity, 1.6 percentage points more than in the previous month, with a delinquency rate of 1.08%, although 0.10 percentage points higher than that reported in August; on a year-over-year basis, it fell 0.36 pp.
Despite the decline in delinquencies, the banking sector maintained a provision equivalent to 285.85% of the overdue and/or in-litigation portfolio at the close of August, while also reporting a provision for possible uncollectible loans of 100,682.52 million bolivars, 10.3% higher than the previous month and 519.7% higher than in the same period of 2025.
The overdue and/or in-litigation loan portfolio of the system stood at 35,221.71 at the end of August, representing growth of 19.8% compared with July and an increase of 528.9% versus the balance for the same month of 2025