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Cuba's Central Bank admits quality problems; an economist calls the banking system 'in intensive care'
The Communist Party Secretariat visited the Central Bank and three commercial banks on November 4: its minister-president named quality as the core problem, with queues for cash and blackouts, while economist Pedro Monreal describes a banking system "in intensive care" because of the peso's slide, according to CiberCuba.
The Secretariat of the Communist Party's Central Committee, led by Miguel Díaz-Canel, visited the Central Bank of Cuba and three commercial banks on November 4: the Metropolitano, the Popular de Ahorro and the Crédito y Comercio, known as BANDEC, as part of the follow-up to the Economic and Social Transformations.
The Central Bank's minister-president, Juana Lilia Delgado Portal, named quality as the sector's core problem and listed the poor perception of service in bank branches, the crowds of people demanding cash, the low staffing of teller windows, blackouts and connectivity failures, and the little progress in public communication, which limits awareness of new banking products. The Granma report includes no figures on inflation, the exchange rate or the shift to electronic payments.
On Friday, Cuban economist Pedro Monreal published an analysis of that meeting on his social media accounts concluding that the country's banking system is "in intensive care," according to CiberCuba. Monreal argues that the meeting set no verifiable monetary policy targets, such as inflation, the monetary base, the exchange rate or liquidity, did not explain what instruments would restore the peso's value, and did not address the monetary or quasi-fiscal origin of the imbalances.
Data note: CiberCuba presents the little progress in public communication as the sector's only explicit self-criticism. The Granma article Yamacoa consulted includes that point alongside the other problems the minister-president listed.
Sources: CiberCuba · Granma · Serie Yamacoa: Dólar en el mercado informal (elTOQUE (tasa representativa))
Data updated: 2026-11-07T16:15:00.000Z