OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch-rated Chilean nonbank financial institutions (NBFIs) will be able to fund their maturities in 2016 despite tighter liquidity conditions that began with the default of Caja de Compensacion de Asignacion Familiar La Araucana (CCAF La Araucana) in early November, Fitch Ratings says.

NBFIs have the potential to manage controlled de-leveraging through a liquidity disruption thanks to their relatively modest amount of short term maturities and conservative liquidity management that generally matches fund assets with slightly longer duration liabilities. Additionally, larger NBFIs maintain access to bank lines.

Chilean NBFI bond and commercial paper issuance fell significantly and spreads widened following CCAF La Araucana's default. At the same time, a few banks stopped financing or reduced credit facilities for CCAFs and some smaller NBFIs. Lending generally remained open to larger NBFIs, although not with committed lines.

Chilean NBFIs provide finance and leasing, non-banking credit cards, auto loans and other services. With more risk appetite than banks, these entities play an important role in some credit segments but do not have explicit prudential regulations or a solvency supervisor. They can be classified as "shadow banks" that are mainly locally funded with bank credit lines and, to a lesser extent, with market issuance.

The recent default has restricted banking and capital market financing for many CCAFs and is affecting market confidence. That pressure also spread to NBFIs. A regulatory framework could be introduced in the medium-term. A recent independent report recommended extending the regulator's responsibilities to include some NBFIs, a move that would be important for the governance and risk management of the sector.

Fitch-rated NBFIs addressed the initial funding shrinkage with asset and liability management techniques. The short-term debt maturities were largely funded with liquidity buffers and a few firms temporarily restricted loan growth. Larger NBFIs also used available bank credit lines. In a few cases, smaller entities received capital injections.

This pressure will abate in the near term as the sector faces no material public debt maturities in at least the next six months. Some larger NBFIs are looking to diversify their funding sources by obtaining bilateral credit from foreign banks or multilateral agencies. Loan securitization may be an option for some entities, although those facilities will be generally limited to no more than 10% of total funding. We also expect these institutions to continue to match maturities, a technique that is particularly effective for factoring specialists, which generally have portfolios with maturities between 60 and 70 days. This ensures they have significant cash on hand daily.

Fitch expects the market to normalize at some point this year - once the future of CCAF La Araucana, which is negotiating an agreement with its creditors to avoid liquidation, is clearer. In fact, the last week has seen signs in this direction, with a few NBFIs being able to issue commercial papers at relatively reasonable prices, although still higher than before the current market restrictions. We will closely monitor the liquidity situation.

We believe loan growth will slow in 2016 given the potential for most NBFIs to restrict loan growth if funding restrictions last longer than expected, thus reducing their funding needs. Less favorable economic conditions will also drag on loan growth. Fitch forecasts Chilean GDP to grow by 2.3% in 2016, little improved from 1.9% in 2014 and 2.1% in 2015. This will likely continue to pressure on NBFIs' lending growth rates, asset quality and profitability.

Fitch maintains a stable outlook on most rated NBFIs.