The Quarterly Report on Financial Inclusion of Banca de las Oportunidades as of September 2022 revealed that the number of adults with at least one deposit or credit financial product reached 34.5 million, which corresponds to 92.1 percent, with an increase of about 300,000 people compared to June last year.
In terms of use, the percentage of adults with an active financial product rose from 76.9 to 77.7 percent between June and September 2022. This implies that 29.1 million adults have at least one of these products active at the end of the third quarter of 2022.
(Also read: Credit cards: why is it a bad time to use them?)
The report shows an increase in the number of adults who have at least one formal financial credit product with a credit institution, cooperative with financial activity or microcredit NGO. There are 13.5 million, corresponding to 36 percent of the country’s adult population.
The credit card was the most used credit product: 8.4 million adults had at least one current one; followed by consumer credit with 7.7 million adults and microcredit with more than 2.4 million. The products with the lowest penetration were housing loans, with 1.3 million, and commercial loans, with 441,000.
In the case of companies, 300,681 had some current credit in the formal financial system at that date. Commercial credit was the one that obtained the highest penetration, 229,979 had at least one, followed by credit cards (95,050), consumer credit (79,441) and microcredit (5,020). Additionally, financial inclusion is restricted as the size of the companies is reduced.
(Also read: If you are going to invest this year, be prudent with your financial decisions)
Although access to formal financing has positive effects for Colombian households and companies, it does not happen automatically. Access to financing mechanisms, as well as the provision of liquidity, are among the most common needs of Colombians and of smaller companies in the country. Both supply and demand barriers rationalize creditaccording to Banca de las Oportunidades.
«From the National Government we have been working with the financial entities of the Bicentennial Group in the formulation of a credit inclusion strategy for the popular economy that seeks to promote an inclusive financial ecosystem, with a wide and diverse range of financial services, providers of these services and distribution channels, adjusted to the heterogeneous needs of the traditionally underserved segment of the population,» said Paola Arias , director of Banca de las Oportunidades.
The goal is to include, for the first time, the popular economy with loans of low amounts and short terms and that allow formal financing to become a key lever for the growth of low-income population sectors in the country, that promotes the generation of income and the accumulation of productive assets and that combats informal financing schemes such as drop by drop .
