The Central Bank halted a Supervielle debt issue in dollars to contain exchange rate pressure.

In an unusual move, the Central Bank halted a planned dollar-denominated debt placement operation by Banco Supervielle on Friday . The bank sought to raise approximately USD 100 million through a double-tranche issue, one in pesos and the other in foreign currency, but only managed to advance the peso portion.

Bloomberg confirmed the news and cited sources close to the transaction. According to the report, the Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA) contacted bank executives directly to request that they halt the dollar placement, a decision that surprised the financial sector but reflects a broadergovernment strategy to maintain exchange rate stability.

The placement's design allowed investors to purchase bonds in pesos with the right to receive dollars abroad after six months. In practice, this meant indirect access to the dollar settled with settlement (CCL) through a debt mechanism.

Supervielle had already attracted interest from corporate clients and made progress in structuring the instruments, which would be placed through brokers such as Balanz, SBS, and Allaria. Demand was high, in a context where the CCL is trading near its lowest levels in real terms, around $1,154.

The Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA), however, decided to halt the auction. There were no official statements from the monetary authority, nor from Supervielle or the brokerage firms involved.

The intervention was no coincidence. According to Bloomberg , the Central Bank is preparing to launch a new batch of Bopreal bonds, dollar-denominated bonds for companies that need to send dividends abroad. Preventing other issues from interfering or increasing demand in the financial market is part of an organized strategy to absorb pesos and reduce pressure on parallel dollar bonds.

Furthermore, Supervielle's operation had a peculiarity: it generated additional demand for CCL dollars, which could disrupt values ​​at a time when the BCRA is seeking to maintain the managed float within the range of $1,000 to $1,400, as part of the program agreed upon with the International Monetary Fund.

The scheme, used in recent weeks by Tarjeta Naranja and Banco Galicia, takes advantage of the loopholes in the current exchange rate regime. Companies obtain funding in dollars at very low rates, while banks act as intermediaries with significant profits, then lend those dollars to exporters at 7% per year.

Despite the cancellation of the dollar tranche, Supervielle managed to place the peso tranche. According to the bank, the issue was for $48.2 billion, at a variable rate linked to the TAMAR (currently at 34%) plus a 3.5% spread.

This was a significant placement for the bank, although clearly more limited than initially expected. The possibility of obtaining funding in hard currency at practically zero cost was a valuable opportunity for the bank and its clients, in a context where financial uncertainty still affects many investment and financing decisions.

The BCRA's measure marks a new surgical intervention, aimed at sustaining the deflationary process and preventing deviations that jeopardize the equilibrium achieved in the exchange rate. This was not a general control, but rather a selective adjustment for strategic purposes, in line with the exchange rate pass-through control policy promoted by the economic team.