The Financing of Public Banks in the Development Plans of the Nation, 2000-2012

This research sets forth elements of the public policy that directed the agenda developed by the Venezuelan government, during the period 2000-2012, to transform the national financial system in accord with objectives outlined in the National Development Plans. The research was supported by the work of authors such as Alvarez (2009), Giron et al. (2010), Meszaros (2009), Ocando and Pirela (2008) and institutional documents from SUDEBAN, the Ministry of Planning and Development and the National Assembly of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Using documentary research with a bibliographic design, the political and epistemic analyses of the research are addressed, considering the hermeneutic method, which permitted a reflection on the financing mechanisms implemented by the Venezuelan government from 2000 to 2012. Research results point to the need to understand the axiology that determines public decision-making so as to analyze and explain the economic dynamics. During the analyzed period, significant changes were observed in the Venezuelan financial system, associated with fillfillment of the objectives enunciated in National Developments Plans for the 2001-2007 and 2007-2012 periods, including: the increase in public banking participation associating the function of development banking as the essential role of public banks, credit orientation according to strategic development purposes, modification and/or creation of the legal and institutional framework, an increase in banking levels, the creation of institutions to attend excluded sectors, such as the Women's Development Bank and the People's Bank, transforming the Investment Fund of Venezuela into the Economic and Social Development Bank of Venezuela (BANDES, its acronym in Spanish), and acquisition of the Bank of Venezuela by the Venezuelan government, which permitted increasing the public banking share in the financing of economic and social activity in the country.