CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday he could nationalize private banks unless they comply with the law, adding he had “no problem with that because the banks don't want to extend credit to the poor.” In a broadcast from nationalized farmland in central Venezuela, he said: “To all the country's private bankers … (I'm saying) he who slips up loses; I'll take over the bank, whatever its size.” “You want me to nationalize the banks?” he said during the broadcast of his weekly TV show “Alo Presidente.” “I have no problem with that because the banks don't want to extend credit to the poor, they don't comply, they don't want to comply with the bank's purpose for existence, and that is the law.” Chavez said the purpose of banks was not to enrich a small group of people but “should be to collect funds and savings to help aid the country's development by making loans, extending credits for housing.” In power for a decade, Chavez has nationalized broad swathes of the economy.
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Chavez threatens to nationalize Venezuelan banks
