OCIF closes the door to First Finance

The Financial Institutions Commissioner’s Office The OCIF issued a cease-and-desist order with First Finance International after verifying that the international financial entity (IFE) was facing bankruptcy, including the disappearance of half of the entity’s assets.

The regulatory decision came this Thursday, when Commissioner Natalia Zekera also ordered the appointment of a trustee to control EFI and try to secure customer deposits.

This decision ends the complaint procedure initiated by OCIF in August 2021, when the state regulator asked EFI to justify why First Finance’s operations in Puerto Rico had not been terminated. Correspondingly, prior to the cease and desist, on June 10, 2019, the regulator issued a consent order against First Finance for failing to comply with the capital levels required by Law 273 of 2012.

new day Review the regulatory action that the Open NGO Coordination Office has taken against him First Finance last June.

“With the actions we are taking today in this First Finance matter, we are fully complying with our duty as a regulator under OCIF laws and/or regulations to protect against irreparable harm to not only the interests of the entity, persons and entities with money or values,” Commissioner Natalia Zequera Diaz said in a written statement. in the enterprise but ultimately the solidity and reputation of Puerto Rico’s financial system.”

Zequera Diaz has appointed Certified Public Accountant Wigberto Lugo Minder as trustee of First Finance.

With the designation of OCIF, First Finance will be the third international financial institution to close its operations due to insolvency and repeated violations of regulations that apply to these international banking organizations and entities (EBIs) this year.

OCIF is currently liquidating Bancrédito Bank & Trust International and Euro Pacific Bank.