2023-04-23 08:27:17
Bogotá — Despite the fact that inflation in Colombia does not seem to let up so far in 2023, and that the Banco de la República continues to raising reference rates to try to contain it, the main banking entities have started a strategy of lowering the cost of some credits in a battle to stimulate consumption and reactivate the economy.
The maneuver, revealed by several of the largest banks in the country, consists precisely in lowering the interest rates of some financial products such as cards of credit in more than 50%, taking into account that, because they are tied to the usury rate, they are the highest in the system.
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Some of the entities that have already joined this initiative were Bancolombia, Davivienda, Banco de Bogotá, Banco de Occidente, Bbva, among others, and it is expected that in the coming months a domino effect will be generated that affects other organizations.
In this way, in the face of these strategies that predict, among other things, stimuli in access to credit from banks, fintech, retailers and other financial companies, a panorama of high competitiveness is also reflected, where technology proves to be a key tool to boost consumption.
“The automation of credit evaluation processes, for example, reduces human error, optimizes certain steps that were previously manual and, in turn, saves time that translates into lower costs,” says Santiago Etchegoyen, co -founder and CTO of uFlow.
The truth is, the technology that the different startups will bring has allowed financial institutions to control the credit risk and improve its operation when defining what the loan granting policies will be.
“In the end, this technology can respond to a user in seconds if they have an approval or a pre-approval, thus preventing the entity from taking hours or days by requiring an exhaustive review of all the information,” explains Sokal.
Another of the advantages that it offers within credit analysis is efficiency, since as the executive affirmsit is not the same to have a whole pile of files on the analyst’s desk waiting to be examined, “than to do it through artificial intelligence, which does not mean that the analyst is no longer necessary, but perhaps only for those cases where human intervention is really needed”.
We must not forget that fintechs, digital banking and companies that develop this type of solutions for the sector, They are the standard bearers of an unprecedented transformation that promotes financial inclusion in Latin America.
Therefore, for many economists, technologies will stimulate consumption in the country and generate a major opportunity for alliances to be sealed between the different actors with the aim of closing the gaps in access to financial products.
“We have clients that are from startups of about a few hundred transactions to huge companies that make millions of transactions per month. Being a tool in the cloud, you can grow and decrease your infrastructure based on what the client requires and it adapts to the budget of any company”, highlighted Etchegoyen.
It should be remembered that technologies are tools that, in the face of this new situation of high global inflation and Recession threats can contribute to optimizing credit processes of financial institutions, fintech and retail and, thus, reactivate consumption, ultimately generating growth in the national economy.
The importance of these tools at present, promoted the next April 26 being carried out in the country: El Cafetero Fintech Forum, an event organized by MeF (Women in Fintech Colombia), which seeks to promote spaces for knowledge about digital financial solutions, the fintech industry and its growth in the regions.
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