Colombia’s financial markets regulator on Friday announced that it will take control of the country’s biggest brokerage firm, Interbolsa.
The brokerage firm executes one third of the daily operations on Colombia’s stock exchange however the firm disclosed on Thursday November 1st that it had ”temporary liquidity constraint” however it continues to operate normally in the immediate future.
The problems caused shares in the firm to drop 30% to 53 U.S. cents however the Colombian market regulator, the Autorregulador del Mercado de Valores (AMV) assured the public that the 50 thousand clients resources were not at risk.
The AMV will make it’s decision with in two months as to whether the firm is available for liquidation, with the possibility of another couple of months.
Yesterday, in a statement, Interbolsa said: “The Exchange brokerage firm faces a temporary liquidity constraint against which, responsibly, and proactively, is exploring all alternatives available to address this situation.”
Despite Interbolsa been part of a larger group under the same name including insurance and investment branches throughout the Americas the AMV claims the move will only affect the stock brokerage firm.
Trade on the Colombian stock market has suspended for 5 days after the AMV’s announcement, due simply to the size of the firms customer base.