- BANCA
Commercial credit and microcredit lose their rate cap: the 16% a year that was the ceiling became the minimum a bank must charge.
Gaceta Oficial 7.073 Extraordinario del 11-sep · resoluciones 26-08-01 y 26-08-02 · en vigor desde el martes 15 · encaje 73% sobre la vista y el ahorro, 50% sobre el plazo
affects any company financing inventory, payroll or working capital in bolivars
- JUSTICIA
Alex Saab pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering, agreed to forfeit $195 million and committed to cooperate with open investigations.
Declaración de hechos de ocho páginas · al menos seis contratos de importación de alimentos y medicinas · cuatro co-acusados sin nombre público · máximo de 20 años de pena
affects anyone screening Venezuelan counterparties with a public-contracting record
- DIPLOMACIA
The United Kingdom will name an ambassador in Caracas, raising a mission that had been led by a chargé d'affaires since 2021.
Declaración escrita al Parlamento del martes 15 · el texto precisa que no cambia la valoración británica de los procesos electorales de 2024 ni respalda a ninguna parte
affects British companies with a contract, asset or pending arbitration in Venezuela
The price of money in bolivars no longer has a written upper limit. Until Monday, a company seeking commercial credit knew its rate would not exceed 16% a year; since Tuesday that number is the starting point. For anyone billing in bolivars and financing inventory or payroll, the math changes this week, not next quarter. The central bank presented the measure from the saver's side, who now earns interest even on a checking account, and the statement stopped there. In Miami, an eight-page statement signed by the man who ran six state import contracts describes how they were awarded and what they were paid in. In London, the British embassy has a head of mission again after five years.
Brent closed Tuesday at $108.46, nearly four above Friday and at the high end of September's range. Merey is calculated off that benchmark with a discount of eight to fourteen dollars, placing Venezuelan crude between 94 and 100. It is the numerator for nearly everything else: the hard currency the issuing institute uses to intervene in the exchange market arrives through that channel, not through any resolution. A sustained retreat below one hundred would tighten that arithmetic faster than any minimum rate can offset.
The September 11 official gazette carried two central bank resolutions in force since Tuesday the 15th: commercial credit loses its rate cap and reserve requirements split by deposit type.
Official Gazette 7,073 Extraordinary of September 11 published two resolutions signed on August 13 and in force since Tuesday the 15th. The repealed rule ordered that commercial credit and microcredit neither exceed 16% a year nor fall below 13%. Article 3 of the one in force sets a minimum rate of 16% and writes no maximum. The same text raises the minimums banks pay on savings and time deposits, requires demand deposits to be remunerated, and takes from 19.2% to 48% what the issuing institute charges for its liquidity.
BCV — Banco Central de Venezuela ↗Art. 3: mínimo 16%, sin máximo (antes máx 16%, mín 13%) · Ahorro 32%→42% · Plazo 36%→46% · Vista 0%→10% · Redescuento 19,2%→48% · Déficit de encaje 163,2%→192% · Encaje 73% vista y ahorro, 50% plazoArticle 14 raises to 48% what the issuing institute charges for its liquidity, and the penalty hangs off that number: falling short on reserves costs 144 points above that rate, so the penalty went from 163.2% to 192% a year without anyone touching the 144 points. A bank taking in one hundred bolivars of savings immobilizes seventy-three and lends twenty-seven, while paying on the full hundred. What closes that arithmetic is the rate charged on the twenty-seven, precisely the one that lost its upper limit.
The bank that placed commercial credit against a 16% cap: since Tuesday it sets the rate above that number without seeking approval and collects it in the installment it bills.
The company financing inventory or payroll in bolivars: the number that was its maximum cost until Monday became the minimum, and no text now sets the upper limit.
INDICADORThe weighted average lending rate for universal banks published weekly by the issuing institute, and whether any bank publishes written commercial credit terms. · Las dos primeras publicaciones semanales de tasas posteriores al 15 de septiembre de 2026
Alex Saab pleaded guilty on Tuesday the 15th in a Miami federal court, agreed to forfeit $195 million and committed to cooperate with open federal investigations.
Alex Saab on Tuesday changed to guilty the not-guilty plea he had entered on July 24, before Judge Kathleen M. Williams, in case 1:19-cr-20450 in the Southern District of Florida. In an eight-page statement of facts he admitted diverting at least $195 million from at least six food and medicine import contracts awarded to companies he controlled. The document attributes to the scheme the approval and protection of senior Venezuelan authorities and cites an individual identified only as Official 1A.
AP — audiencia del Distrito Sur de Florida ↗Declaración de hechos de ocho páginas · al menos US$195 millones a decomisar · seis contratos · cuatro co-acusados sin nombre público · US$17 millones a un exgobernador · pena máxima de 20 añosA cooperation agreement is worth not the sentence it avoids but what it obliges the signer to hand over. Prosecutors reserved the right to seek further reductions from a penalty of up to 20 years if the contribution proves substantial, and four co-defendants remain publicly unnamed. The document also records that over time those payments were settled in Venezuelan crude, gold and other natural resources — the same class of asset on which new contracts are being signed today.
The prosecutors handling the case: they add a signed account of six contracts to the record and keep the leverage of reducing the sentence for further information.
Anyone in those contracts not yet identified: four co-defendants appear in the statement without public names, and the signer committed to expanding it.
INDICADORWhether any public filing identifies one of the four co-defendants, or a new charge appears citing the statement of facts. · Entre la declaración del 15 de septiembre de 2026 y la audiencia de sentencia
The British minister for Latin America presented a written statement to Parliament on Tuesday the 15th: the United Kingdom will name an ambassador in Caracas, a post held by a chargé d'affaires since 2021.
The British Embassy in Caracas announced on Tuesday the 15th that London is raising its mission to ambassador level, a post held by a chargé d'affaires since 2021. Its head of mission, Colin Dick, said the decision will deepen cooperation on the democratic transition, economic recovery and post-earthquake reconstruction. The minister for Latin America, Chris Elmore, that same day presented a written statement to Parliament with an explicit caveat: the approach does not change the British assessment of recent electoral processes, including those held in 2024, nor does it endorse any party.
Embajada Británica en Caracas ↗Declaración escrita al Parlamento del 15-sep-2026 · misión en encargado de negocios desde 2021 · texto expreso: reconocer Estados, no gobiernos · sin cambio en la valoración de los procesos de 2024Recognising States rather than governments is the formula that allows accrediting an ambassador without ruling on who is in charge. For a company with an asset or pending arbitration, the mission's rank determines who it can sit down with and what consular backing its claim carries. London had lowered that rank to chargé d'affaires in 2021; the last formal ambassadorial accreditation ended that same year.
The British company with a contract, asset or pending arbitration in Venezuela: it regains ambassador-level interlocution, the rank London withdrew in 2021.
Anyone expecting to read the appointment as an endorsement: the text itself says it does not change the British assessment of the 2024 electoral processes nor back any party.
INDICADORThe name of the appointed ambassador and the date credentials are presented in Caracas. · Desde la declaración del 15 de septiembre de 2026 hasta la acreditación formal
HOW OUR CALLS ARE DOING
indicators we issued in earlier editionsOn September 11 we noted the official rate had advanced 4.7% in eleven days and set a watch on whether that pace would hold through the month's second half.
The issuing institute answered with an instrument before the month was out: its September 14 note states the new rates seek to have individuals and companies hold a larger share of their balances in bolivars. The rate with Wednesday the 16th as value date stands at 846.51, fourteen bolivars above Friday the 11th.