Only 36 of an Estimated 1,600 Ecuadorian Savings Boxes Are Compliant Before November 2026 SEPS Deadline
A large segment of Ecuador's community savings sector remains outside formal supervision months before a regulatory deadline.
The compliance gap
Per Primicias, only 36 entities have met the requirements to operate formally. Scale estimates of the universe vary widely:
| Reference | Figure |
|---|---|
| Compliant cajas de ahorro | 36 |
| Officially registered (as of February 2025) | 572 |
| Estimated operating nationwide | ~1,600 |
The ~1,600 estimate comes from Valeria Llerena, executive director of the Red de Instituciones Financieras de Desarrollo: "Se estima que hay al menos 1.600 de estas entidades operando en el país".
The rule and the regulator
The Superintendencia de Economía Popular y Solidaria (SEPS) — the regulator for Ecuador's popular and solidarity economy — enforces a prohibition that is widely ignored: cajas de ahorro "siguen captando depósitos de terceros, pese a prohibición" (continue taking third-party deposits despite the ban). The deadline to comply expires in November 2026.
Former superintendent Margarita Hernández noted the structural difficulty: directly supervising the cajas de ahorro is complex. The article does not state specific third-party deposit volumes or enumerate penalties imposed.
What to watch
- November 2026 deadline: the gap between 36 compliant entities and an estimated ~1,600 implies either a large-scale formalization push or widespread non-compliance at the deadline.
- Systemic exposure: informal third-party deposit-taking outside SEPS supervision is the core consumer-protection and financial-stability risk in this segment.
- Enforcement posture: watch whether SEPS moves from conceptual sanctions to specific enforcement actions as the deadline approaches.
Source: Primicias
Source
Primicias — "Cajas de ahorro siguen captando depósitos de terceros, pese a prohibición, mientras pocas se han regularizado"
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