In the first five months of this year, the country’s credit institutions approved and disbursed, on average, 828 consumer loans per hour, This corresponds to about 19,873 per day in that elapsed period of 2021.
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That figure is 32.2 percent higher than the data recorded in the same period of 2020, when the country was at its peak. pandemic, but the credit market had not yet fully transferred the effects of the crisis unleashed by the coronavirus.
The data is part of the statistics of the Financial Supervision which indicate that between January and May, only through the different lines of consumption, Colombians obtained resources of the order of 44 trillion pesos, 14.4 trillion more than what was disbursed in the first five months of 2020.
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The most recent report of the financial system of the Superfinanciera highlights that, in terms of consumption, two lines of credit are the ones that are marking this portfolio: drafts and loans to acquire a vehicle.
These two lines, the report states, contributed 3.1 percentage points to the dynamics of consumer credit in the last 12 months, while credit cards and revolving loans contributed to the decline.
Only by way of bills of exchange, which are the credits granted by the entities and whose monthly payment is directly debited from the worker’s salary, the bank has disbursed close to 20 billion pesos between January and May, 71.1 percent more than the record for the same period from last year.
The financial establishments that serve the payroll market disbursed on average about 2,977 of these loans per day in those first months of 2021.
This credit modality has gained great strength in recent years, among other reasons, due to its characteristics, since it is aimed at formal workers to whom the monthly payment is deducted from their salary, which makes the delinquency levels of this portfolio are among the lowest in the system.
The default indicator for this type of credit at the end of last May stood at 2.4 percent, 3.36 percentage points below the index for the entire consumer segment, which was 5.76 percent, according to the surveillance and control entity.
“This is a loan that allows people to achieve any professional or personal goal because it is free investment. Therefore, it is very attractive for employees and pensioners, in addition, it has a process of digital and agile approval that saves time and avoids travel, as well as a series of benefits to give greater flexibility when paying the fees ”, says Luis Fernando Gómez Falla, vice president of Personal and SME Banking at the popular Bank.
This entity disbursed more than 1,000 million pesos to some 17,000 Colombians in March alone, of which 13,322 are pensioners and 2,559 are members of the education sector, said the manager.
Perhaps this is one of the factors so that the purchase of the drawer portfolio by supervised financial entities from other establishments that serve this market grows at an accelerated rate.
Official statistics show that between January and May, these purchases grew 186.6 percent and represented about 388,000 million pesos in 15,830 new loans, 70 percent more than those acquired in the same period of 2020.
More for vehicles
Vehicle financing It is also making good progress this year, industry statistics show. The number of loans approved and disbursed by banks grew 62 percent between January and May of this year compared to the same period of the previous year.
Under this financing modality, the financial sector approved and disbursed close to 590 credits per day or more than 24 per hour in the first 151 days of 2021.
In those months, lenders financed the vehicle purchase (new and used) for more than 3.5 billion pesos, this is 66.9 percent more than what was allocated between January and May 2020.
As it is recalled, the automotive sector also shows remarkable dynamics this year. According to National Association for Sustainable Mobility (Andemos), at the end of last July, 134,299 new vehicles had entered the Colombian automotive fleet, 54.6 percent more than that registered in the first seven months of 2020, although the statistical effect generated by the pandemic must be taken into account .
Oliverio García, president of Andemos, highlights the strong dynamics in the sale of electric and hybrid vehicles, which reaches 301 percent per year, which places Colombia as the leader in the sale of these models in Latin America with more than 8,800 cars in this category so far in the 2021.
Other lines of consumption
Another of the segments of consumption that present good dynamics is that of credit cards, since through this instrument people have obtained financing for their expenses for about 5.8 trillion pesos, which means that the cardholders of the country have consumed with their plastics, on average, more than 1.15 billion pesos per month until the end of last May.
The statistics of the Superfinancial They show that the highest consumption with credit cards has occurred in the segment of cardholders with incomes below the two current monthly minimum wages, where the value of this expense, in the period analyzed, totaled 4.9 trillion pesos and presents an annual growth of 14.5 percent. Meanwhile, in people whose income exceeds that two-salary limit, card consumption totaled 890,000 million and a dynamic of 19.6 percent.
And although low-value consumer loans and those granted by entities to their own employees also show important dynamics, 62 and 33.6 percent, respectively, these are not massive, since the former are only offered by a bank and seconds are focused on serving a special segment.
The negative share in the behavior of the consumer portfolio this year is due to revolving loans and free investment loans. Although the first ones show a growth of 130.6 percent in the number of approvals, the amount registers a fall of 30.7 percent; In the latter, approvals rose 24.5, while the amounts fell 10.1 percent.
‘There will be a credit recovery in 2021’
Bankers are confident that credit will continue to recover in the remainder of 2021. Hernando José Gómez, president of Asobancaria, He estimates that the portfolio will present a dynamics of 7.1 percent, after growing by 4.2 percent last year.
The projections of the guild suggest that consumption does so at a rate of 11 percent, compared to 2.3 percent in 2020; housing at 8.3 percent, SMEs at 7.3 percent, microcredit at 5.1 and large companies at 4.8 percent.
These growth goals will not be difficult to meet, because with regard to consumption with Credit cards this grew 12.1 percent in July compared to the same month of 2019 and 24.4 percent, if compared to the seventh month of 2020.
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