The recent US$170mn three-year bonds that Chile’s fourth largest bank BCI issued on the Mexican market aims at diversifying its funding sources as well as taking advantage of low interest rates in that market, analysts said.

The benchmark interest rate in Mexico currently stands at 4.5% and there are no signs that the central bank will raise the rate over the rest of the year, Gerardo Copca, analyst at local consultancy MetAnбlisis, told BNamericas.

“Through issues like these, banks can secure cheap funding in markets where things are less dangerous [than in other places],” he said, also highlighting the Mexican economy’s stable indicators.

In a brief statement sent to Chile’s securities and insurance regulator SVS, BCI said that on July 15 it issued 2bn pesos worth of Mexico’s so-called Cebures at 40 basis points above the local TIIE benchmark interbank interest rate.

Through the debt placement BCI is diversifying its sources of funding and acting in accordance with its asset strategy or cash needs, added Gonzalo Neculman, banking analyst at Chilean ratings agency Humphreys.

BCI is 64% owned by the local Yarur family.

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