Actualidad Colombia

Free withdrawals from savings accounts

Senate Bill 196 / Chamber 141/2015

Colombia’s Congress is debating a bill that would require credit establishments to offer at least one way of withdrawing funds from deposits in savings accounts free of charge.

They would be obliged to provide savings-accounts holders whose monthly deposits are less than three times the current minimum wage (about USD 664 in total), at least one secure online method of withdrawing money without being charged.

The bill would require credit institutions to allow account holders at least two (2) free cash withdrawals from ATMs and one balance query a month.

In addition to the above, this Bill stipulates that Colombia’s Financial Authority [Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia: SFC] will supervise banking institutions’ compliance with these obligations, and prioritise complaints about non-compliance presented by financial consumers.

At the close of this edition, this Bill was going through its first debate of four in Congress.