For seven years Bancamía has been bringing the financial system to underprivileged Colombians in order to provide them with tools for their productive development, ensuring that today thousands of small entrepreneurs have a bank that helps them move forward. The bank started its operations in October 2008 with a portfolio of 170,000 people (attended by the Colombia and Medellín Women’s World Corporations) and now in 2015 has 773,100 current customers.
Bancamía is celebrating its seventh anniversary by reporting a growth of 355% in its number of customers. In its seven years of activity it has served over 1.2 million people, most of whom were in conditions of poverty. The bank has measured its social impact on several variables that reveal the improvement in the quality of life of the customers it serves and in the entrepreneurs’ production units, showing that after their second year with the bank, 33% rise out of poverty*. In addition, after this period the entrepreneurs have enjoyed a growth in their businesses of 20% in sales, 49% in assets, 58% in personal wealth, 46% in surpluses and 12% in savings*.
Bancamía currently has 196 branch offices in 29 of the 32 departments in Colombia, where it serves 773,100 customers in 886 municipal districts. In 80% of the national territory, at least at one low-income Colombian is perceiving the benefits of access to loans, savings accounts, term-deposit certificates, international giros and insurance**.
The bank continues to work with particular emphasis in the rural sector, where the figures for poverty and lower access to the formal banking system are especially worrying. To address this issue, Bancamía is creating tools that allow thousands of Colombians to use its financial products from their own homes, saving them money and time spent traveling. These include mobile banking, which by late 2050 will be available from all cellphones whatever the range.
Mobile banking technology will act as a supplement to the enlargement of the physical service channels established by the bank in 2015, with ten new branch offices, a greater number of the bank’s own banking correspondents (currently a figure of 57), and –through partnerships– in a network of locations covering 3,300 points.
From January to October 2015, over 82,000 Colombians have joined Bancamía as new customers, up 11% over the customers served until December 2014. The bank delivers 984 loans a day, and 123 an hour every working day all around the country, meaning that thousands of people every day have the opportunity to access the formal financing system in order to improve their quality of life: This has been one of the bank’s greatest achievements in its seven years of work.
* Figures in December 2014.
** Group insurance policies subscribed by Bancamía on behalf of their customers with Mapfre Colombia Vida Seguros S.A. (voluntary life), BBVA Seguros de Vida Colombia S.A. (life debtors and funeral) and AIG Seguros Colombia S.A. (damages). The international giro service is through a network use agreement signed with the firm Acciones y Valores S.A. Comisionista de Bolsa.