Luego de la tormenta, llega la calma?, comunicación poscrisis y la reputación empresarial

Abstract

The following study reviews the Banking Holiday Crisis in Ecuador. Multiple private banks lobbied for liberalizing the banking policy in 1992. As a result, in 1994, the interest rates for loans and credit were lowered and did not request a substantial guarantee. Consequently, in 1999 an unmanageable investment bubble erupted and led to a public panic of Ecuadorians that withdrew their funds from private banks, resulting in massive bankruptcies and the withholding of all funds of the Ecuadorian Banking System by the government. Some 70% of existing banks closed and others had to appeal to the Ecuadorian State for financial salvage after the financial crisis. The Ecuadorian State changed its currency from the Sucre to the U.S. Dollar to provide more economic stability given the uncontrollable devaluation. As a result, Ecuadorians of all ages faced a massive devaluation of their savings, investments, and debt, leading to a generalized mistrust of banks and financial institutions.

Since the 1990s, levels of trust in banking and financial institutions of Ecuador have dramatically shifted from low to moderate. This paper uses the MERCO Financial Monitor Study of 2015 to analyze the reputational valuation criteria that are currently the most important to Ecuadorians after the Banking Holiday Crisis of 1999 when they consider where to allocate their savings, loans, and credit. Additionally, we will analyze through a crisis and post-crisis communication theoretical lens, strategies to explain how companies affected by financial crises can repair reputation and trust in scenarios similar to this case study.