In the 20 days that César Ferrari has been Financial Superintendent (e) he has already received in his office, in the heart of Bogotá, the best of Colombian banking: the Gilinski (GNB Sudameris), Luis Carlos Sarmiento Gutiérrez (Grupo Aval), Javier Suárez (Davivienda) and Alejandro Figueroa (Banco de Bogotá), among others. Even representatives of unions in the area have met with the official, who have shared their vision of what they expect from this, one of the key sectors for the country’s economy.
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The tasks to be done are various and far-reaching, which is why Ferrari is listening to the ideas of the bankers and in this way draw up his plan soon, because as he himself told EL TEMPO yesterday: “The President asked me to come here (and) I guess I’ll still be here.”
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What have the bankers you’ve already met with told you?
I think they have been very positive meetings, they are people with a great desire to collaborate; In addition, when I tell them my ideas, what I would like to do in the superintendency, it fits perfectly with what they also have as a concern. For example, for me a fundamental question is to promote and develop the capital market in Colombia and for this it is essential that there be savings and investment, aspects in which there are major limitations.
You are like a ‘super’ in charge, will you apply to be let go?
The President asked me to come here, I guess I’ll stay here… The legal norm requires that there be a meritocracy (process); I think I have enough merits to arrive in this case. The times to choose depends on the Presidency.
Where are those great obstacles to advance in your proposals?
In the scarcity of savings, that is why he told the bankers that they have to broaden their horizons, extend their arms and reach all Colombians with alternatives so that they can deposit their resources and not everything becomes an expense. We need more digital development, more presence in the provinces, in the territories, so that in this way there are more possibilities of recruitment.
But the bankers say that the problem is the low connectivity to get there…
The country has a very large deficiency there, but there is also a commitment and an enormous effort from the Government to advance in this connectivity, which is not done overnight. What we have to avoid is that there are more fiascos like Centros Poblados, where 70,000 million pesos were lost and absolutely nothing was advanced. We have coverage of 40 percent of the country, but it should be 85 percent, which is somewhat the President’s goal.
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Where is the credit, which also has low levels?
There we have been parked. The bankers are very comfortable with that, a comfortable situation where a lot of money is made, but he told them, “well, it is time that instead of winning by price (high rates), they win by volume and that means expanding the markets , that credit reaches more people, that people have more access to those resources”. In credit markets, the levels are extremely low: 54 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), when in developed countries it reaches 200 and 300 percent of GDP. Something is happening.
You say that the cost of credit is due to the lack of competition and efficiency of the entities…
Here you have to generate much more competition. The way to develop a system without the need to bring in the competition does not go to the library or with price or interest rate controls. And, as he said many times, because I have been telling these stories for a long time; Transparent prices are needed, free entry and exit of agents, but not only of banks, but also of consumers, and information asymmetry is needed.
Those are the attributes of the competition, that must be expanded. We have already started: in the National Development Plan (PND) the open data will be carried out. It means generating information from everyone to everyone, it means installation symmetry, and that is very important. All banks must have simulators so that people can compare prices and rates and in this way they can where they want to be.
Would all entities be required to have simulators?
I would say yes. Today, some have them, but this can be a general, open thing, because that’s part of the competition. Price simulators that do these calculations so that the user can make much more rational and sensible decisions.
In your view, is the competition in the sector today not enough?
It is necessary but not sufficient. We need much more competition between the same banks, funds, competition in the capital and credit markets so that there is more access to resources, but at fair prices, as occurs in other countries. In this open competition, banks are forced to lend and companies know that they can go to the capital market as an alternative to the credit market, but today this competition does not exist in Colombia. Even the cooperatives have to be more active in that market or they will disappear. That’s what I told you this weekend: they must transform, invest in technology and open up more to the market. Most of these are closed, they only lend to each other.
The technological issue is key, will the current regulations be adjusted?
In the last two years we have approved 11 fintechs and this will continue to grow exponentially. Finding the middle ground in this matter is very complicated. We are going to review it to see what is left over and what is missing, looking to the future and taking care that situations like those of the pyramids do not occur again.
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