Some Characteristics of Credit Through Credit Cards and Microcredit in Colombia.

Bank Credit lines.

As of march, according to the entity in charge of financial supervision, bank loans reached $657 billion (b), of which $35 b correspond to credit cards and $19 b to microcredit. But the most representative are corporate commercial loans with $123 b, housing loans $104 b, payroll loans $71 b, free investment loans $61 b, financial leasing loans $41 b, official loans $35 b and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) $32 b.

For its part, the minor ones are construction $29b, foreign currency $24b, other business $23b and vehicles $16b.

With the above information, the following are classified as business credit: Corporate, Financial Leasing, official, SMEs, construction, foreign currency, business, others and microcredit with a value of $361b.

They also classify as personal portfolio housing, payroll, free investment, credit cards, vehicles and others for a value of $296 b.

At the level of individual banks, Bancolombia is the largest in loans with a level of $179 b, of which the corporate $39 b, financial leasing $22 b, official $15 b, free investment $17 b, SMEs $10 b and housing $22 b stand out. Additionally, in credit cards $7.5b and in microcredit $0.1b.

Bancolombia is followed by other banks, which are BBVA bank with a portfolio of $74 b, Davivienda with $102 b, the bank of Bogotá $83 b, the bank of Occidente $46 b and Scotiabank $30 b.

Of these, Davivienda stands out in housing loans $31b, Leasing $12b, free investment $13b. Credit cards $6b and microcredit $0.5b.

The Bank of Bogotá excels in corporate credit $22 b, foreign currency $7 b, housing $9 b and draft $7 b. On credit cards $4 b and microcredit 0.3 b.

BBVA excels in corporate $13b, official $6b, housing $15b and payroll $16b. On credit cards $4 b.

The Bank of Occidente stands out in corporate $11 b, financial leasing $6 b and draft payments $5 b. In credit cards $2 b.

Scotiabank excels in credit cards $5b, free investment $5b, corporate $7b and housing $7b.

The Agrarian Bank has a portfolio of $21 billion, of which $10 billion goes to the microcredit and $4 billion goes to the microenterprise.

The Social Caisse bank has a portfolio of $16 billion, of which $3.6 billion are for VIS ( housing of Social Interest) and 2.6 billion for non VIS housing, $2 billion for free investment and $1 billion for microcredit.

From all the above, some observations are the following. The banking portfolio is concentrated in a few banks such as Bancolombia, BBVA, Davivienda and Banco de Bogotá, which represent 66% of the total.

Banks like Bancolombia also have diversified their portfolio between various modalities, but there are others that specialize, such as Bogotá and Occidente, that direct credit line especially to corporate loans or in the case of Davivienda in housing loans, the same as Scotiabank in credit cards and so on; the same the Agrarian bank in microcredit and the Caja Social bank in VIS housing.

For public policy, the task together with the private sector is to provide the mechanisms to grant greater credits in the form of microcredit by all banking entities. This to serve low income businesses such as neighborhood stores and miscellaneous stores and correct that informality that in the country resorts to the expensive credit of the so called "gota gota." (drop by drop)

Credit Cards

As mentioned before, as of march, the banks' credit cards had a total balance of $35 b, which is only 5% of the total bank portfolio and the main banks that grant these loans are Bancolombia $9 b, Davivienda $7 b, Scotiabank $5.1 b, BBVA Colombia $4.2 b and Banco de Bogotá $3.9 b. Between the 5 of them they represent 83% of the total. This credit, which is a type of preapproved credit (which does not require administrative procedures for its use), can only be accessed by the middle class and high income population according to their income levels.

In turn, according to the number of plastics, the main banks are Bancolombia 2.4 million (m), Scotiabank 2 m, Falabella 1.8 m, Davivienda 1.5 m and Bogotá 1.4 m.

It should be noted that this type of credit occupies first place in those granted by Scotiabank and in relation to other banks it is only surpassed by Davivienda and Bancolombia.

Microcredit

As presented before, microcredit is only 2.9% of the total bank portfolio and is granted 53% by a single bank, the Agrarian bank, and another 5% by The Social Caisse bank. The agrarian bank is official, but it is required, as mentioned before, that other banks, private ones, appropriately serve this credit segment.

Corporate Commercial Credit

They are the main ones within the bank loan portfolio and are those granted to large companies and in this the Bancolombia, The Bank of Bogotá and The Bank of Occidente stand out (which in turn is the main credit of these banks, especially in the Bank of Bogotá and The Bank 0f Occidente). The BBWA that owns it also stands out among those with the greatest participation.

Housing Credit

It occupies first place in those granted by Davivienda, which is also the largest and surpasses other banks.