Argentina’s financial system demonstrated resilience throughout 2025, with increased financial intermediation and expanding payment methods, according to a report released February 20, 2026, by the Banco Central de la República Argentina (BCRA). The report details growth in both peso and foreign currency lending, alongside shifts in asset allocation within the banking sector.
Throughout the year, financial intermediation between Argentinian entities and the private sector increased. The system maintained significant capital, provisioning and liquidity levels, preserving a substantial degree of resilience. Electronic payment methods saw a notable surge in usage, contributing to the overall expansion of financial services.
In December 2025 alone, real credit to the private sector in pesos rose by 1.2%, primarily driven by commercial loans. Peso financing to the private sector expanded by 27.4% in real terms during 2025, with loans backed by collateral showing the strongest growth. Approximately 3,000 new mortgage loans were issued to families in the final month of the year, bringing the total number of new borrowers in this segment to nearly 43,700 for the entire year. Loans to the private sector denominated in foreign currency increased by 4% between reporting periods – measured in the original currency – accumulating a 73% expansion throughout the year.
The BCRA report highlights a “crowding in” effect of credit to the private sector, reflected in the changing composition of the financial system’s total assets. As of December 2025, financing to businesses and families accounted for 43.9% of total assets, an increase of 8.6 percentage points year-over-year. Simultaneously, financing to the public sector decreased to 27.8% of total assets, a reduction of 8 percentage points.
The credit irregularity ratio for the private sector stood at around 5.5% at the end of 2025. Household loan delinquency reached 9.3% of the portfolio dedicated to this type of borrower, even as the irregularity indicator for corporate financing was 2.5%. Entities held provisions covering 93% of non-performing credit and 5.2% of total credit to the private sector.
Peso-denominated time deposits experienced a 4.6% real increase in December, largely due to growth in non-interest-bearing current accounts (15.4% real monthly) and time deposits (4.3% real monthly). Throughout 2025, private sector peso deposits increased by 7.7% in real terms, primarily driven by time deposits. Foreign currency deposits held by the private sector grew by 3.5% in December and 17.7% throughout 2025 – measured in the original currency.
The systemic liquidity indicator in national currency, considering only available funds, decreased by 0.9 percentage points month-over-month to 13.3% (+1.4 percentage points year-over-year), reflecting adjustments to reserve requirements. Including government bonds used to meet reserve requirements, the liquidity ratio in pesos reached 32.9% of deposits of the same denomination at year-end, 1.1 percentage points lower than the previous month (-2.9 percentage points year-over-year). Foreign currency liquidity decreased by 3 percentage points from corresponding deposits, reaching 58.9% in the same period (-13.1 percentage points year-over-year).
The financial system’s capital integration ratio (RPC) remained around 28.6% of risk-weighted assets (RWA) at the end of the year (-2.1 percentage points year-over-year), while excess capital (RPC minus the minimum regulatory requirement) totaled 253% of the regulatory requirement for the aggregate of entities (-32.3 percentage points year-over-year). The leverage ratio of the aggregate financial system – according to Basel Committee guidelines – reached 19.7% in December, well above the minimum regulatory requirement of 3%. The aggregate financial entities reported a positive profitability in December, resulting in a cumulative ROA of 1% (ROE of 4.4%) for the year, lower than that of 2024.
