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The management of the Banco de la República is one of the positions most desired by economists and, in meetings of Board of Directors That remain of the year, Colombia must meet the new leader of the central bank.

History dictates that since 1993, when the Transmitter he replaced the old currency board, only three people have directed the Bank: Miguel Urrutia, who lasted 12 years in office (1993-2004); José Darío Uribe, for 12 years (2005-2017); and Juan José Echavarría, current manager since 2017 and who is seeking his first re-election, but his age would veto him.

Echavarría, who turns 69 in December of this year, has an impediment due to article 1 of Law 1821 of 2016, which stipulates that officials older than 70 years cannot hold public office, but, these days, the Constitutional Court comes studying a lawsuit against that rule and, if he were to knock her down, would give free rein to his wish.

The Board of Directors is made up of seven members: the manager, the Minister of Finance and five co-directors. If the current manager officially expresses to the other members his intention to continue in office, and they see it as viable, the election process would be easier, since it would be put to the consideration of the Board.

But the election is like that, the seven votes are taken into account, and the majority wins. In addition, each member can vote for himself.

The former co-director of the Issuer, Sergio Clavijo, explained that the procedure is “easy and expeditious when the intention of reelection has the support of the other members”, since the consensus is almost immediate.

The question remains in the hands of the Court because, if he knocks down the article in question and Echavarría is re-elected, he will have no problem in pursuing his position for four more years, but, if the claim does not succeed in court, he would only have endorsement to be one more year in management, because in 2021 he would be 70 years old.

In the absence of re-election, sectors, experts and think tanks agree that the current Minister of Finance, Alberto Carrasquilla, who already ran for the position in 2004, would once again have the intention of treasuring the Issuer’s leadership.

This doubt creates an environment of uncertainty about the independence of the Bank because if Carrasquilla occupies such a desired place, the Government would have high interference in the national monetary policy, since Iván Duque will also be able to appoint a new co-director on the board for serving half of his presidential term, as ordered by the Political Constitution.

To remember, in 2014, when Carrasquilla lost to Uribe, the current Minister said that it would not be viable for the head of the Treasury to direct the Issuer.

For the seventh time in a row and despite what the market believed, the Bank of the Republic it reduced the reference interest rates for the economy, this time by 25 percentage points, and placed them at 1.75%, the lowest level in the country’s history.

With this decision, which was not unanimous and had four votes from the seven members of the Board of DirectorsAccording to the Issuer’s manager, Juan José Echavarría, the end of the expansionary cycle would be approaching and, possibly, there will be no further falls in the intervention rate.

“I would say that there is very little space left, that will be determined in each meeting, but in this there was a very divided decision and three members already wanted to stop at 2%. You always have to look at the information, but I think we are close to completing this reduction process, ”he said.

The Minister of Finance, Alberto Carrasquilla, agreed with Echavarría and pointed out that the discussions will continue, but the space is shorter and the Bank has done its best to contribute to the economic reactivation.

“It is clear that the decision is not unanimous and there are members who believe that it is the right time to reduce the rate of monetary expansion and consider that it is more prudent to maintain them,” he said.

The recent lowering of rates took into account the lukewarm level of inflation as of August this year, which is 1.88%, and the expectations for all of 2020 which, according to the Manager, are at 2.75%, very close to the goal of the Issuer (3%), and a more promising reactivation due to the end of the isolation.

“In response to the relaxation of the isolation measures, a slower rate of deterioration of economic activity is observed, although economic activity continues to contract. Along these lines, the technical team of Banco de la República estimates that the economy will contract between 6% and 10% in 2020, ”explained Echavarría.

With this current rate level (1.75%), lower than inflation (1.88%), the door is widening for consumers to access cheaper loans, since the cost of financing is lower. In this sense, the Minister added that the transmission of monetary policy has already been evidenced in commercial banking and in the financial market in general.

“You see a decision to continue with the cuts in order to support the economic recovery. Rates have dropped throughout all financial markets in line with what the Bank has done and this gives continuity ”, he commented.

The majority of interest rates in the financial system have included significantly the reduction in the monetary policy rate, in a context in which there are increases in the volumes of commercial and consumer credit.

“External financial conditions continue to be favorable and the dynamics of the current account reflects lower external financing needs. In these conditions, the balance of risks of the monetary policy suggests the convenience of reducing the interest rate ”, concluded the manager of the Central Bank.

In this regard, Sebastián Díaz, a macroeconomic analyst at Pacífico Research, said that, in effect, it is difficult for the Issuer to continue on the downward path. In addition, he warned that, beyond the improvements in the margin in activity and unemployment due to greater flexibility in measures against the pandemic, in the background a negative output gap persists.

“Unlike previous decisions, there was a clear division in the Board. We believe that the above, together with some statements from the manager about the future path, make it highly probable that the Central Bank has completed the cuts. Although the door is not closing to continue, the discussion seems to be leaning towards rate stability, ”he analyzed.

IMF expanded flexible credit line to Colombia
Another important announcement that Echavarría made was that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the government’s request to expand Colombia’s flexible credit from US $ 10.8 billion to US $ 17.3 billion.

“The line is because vulnerabilities in the world have increased and it is always good to have more insurance,” he said.

Carrasquilla added that part of the resources will be used in the remainder of 2020 for the care of the pandemic, but did not detail how.

Banco de la República will renew the maturity of the forwards in October
The manager of the Banco de la República, Juan José Echavarría, reported that the Board decided to renew, until October 30, the expiration dates of future contracts for the sale of dollars with financial compliance, through an auction on the days of expiration.

“There was such concern and the renewal is a message of tranquility for the exchange market,” said the Minister of Finance.

The profits of the 25 national and foreign banks operating in the country reached an accumulated $ 3.53 trillion at the end of July this year, that is, 42.5% below the levels registered during the same period of 2019 , when the profits of these entities were located at $ 6.14 trillion, according to data from the Financial Superintendence.

In the midst of this fall in profits, six of the 25 banks operating in the country ended July with growth in their profits: Banco Credifinanciera (740.4%), Banco Santander de Negocios Colombia (128.4%), Citibank (83 , 8%), Banco Pichincha (36.4%), Coopcentral (18.4%) and Banco Serfinanza (2%).

Credifinanciera Bank It is the one with the highest increase in profits, not only within the segment of national banks, but in general. At the end of the first semester, this company was also the one that registered the most an increase in its profits, which occurred after the Superfinanciera approved its creation, which occurred after the union with ProCredit.

While the banks that marked the reduction in profits for the seventh month of the year compared to the same month of last year were Itaú Corpbanca Colombia, with -681.8%; Banco Compartir, with -382.1%; Scotiabank Colpatria, with -150.5%; Banco Multibank, with -100.0%; and Banco Caja Social, with -76.4%.

Next are Davivienda (-58.3%), Bancamía (-48.2%), Banco Finandina (-43.9%), Bancoomeva (-42.0%), Banco de Occidente (-35.4% ), among others.

The previous data led to the fact that between January and June of this year, not only foreign banks registered a drop of 89.9% in terms of profits, but national entities also recorded a decrease in this of 32.4%, from According to the recent report of the Superfinanciera.

Pedro Preciado, leading partner of Financial Services at Kpmg in Colombia, highlighted that the profits of the credit establishments continue to suffer because the income is caused, but their collection is uncertain and the growth of new loans is not close to those budgeted by these establishments previously.

Another reason that is negatively impacting the companies’ earnings has to do with “the payment behavior of the debtors and the grace periods granted by financial entities, which end up affecting the deterioration of the portfolio by increasing the level of provisions. “Added Preciado.

Despite the fact that circumstances such as the previous ones have been hitting the profits of the banking entities in these months, these companies registered a recovery of $ 689,413 million in terms of profits when comparing the consolidated figures of June with those of July of this year, since they went from $ 2.6 trillion to $ 3.58 trillion.

David Nieto Martínez, teacher and coordinator of the financial area of ​​the Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences of El Bosque University, highlighted that this improvement in profits as of July is due to the measures adopted by the entities and the different support that the National Government, this has allowed maintaining a stable relationship in terms of compliance with a large part of the obligations acquired by third parties.

In line with this, Alfredo Barragán, an expert in banking at the Universidad de los Andes, assured that the increase in profits could be due to the fact that the entities are taking measures that allow them to recover income from collection of other concepts. However, they have not had significant disbursements that guarantee a relevant increase.

Based on this context, Barragán assured that “it is most likely that this year the banks will not be able to recover. If they were to record notable profits, it would be because a good part of last year’s profits would save this one. They are expected to recover by the end of 2021 ”.

The profits of the financial system
The Financial Superintendency revealed that the general profits of the financial system reached $ 8.5 trillion at the end of July of this year, that is, $ 50.2 trillion less than what was recorded during July of the previous year, when profits were $ 50.6 trillion. .

The sectors that marked this collapse were pensions and severance pay, which recorded a loss of $ 2.8 billion; that of securities intermediaries, with a fall of $ 1.7 trillion, and the Sedpe with a collapse of $ 19,653 million.

While credit establishments reached $ 4.6 trillion at the end of the seventh month of this year. Of this total, 66.2% correspond to the net interest margin, financial services, term operations and investments participated with 4.9%, 8.7% and 18.8%, in their order.

This is how the behavior of collection progresses in the financial system
According to the Superfinancial, “as the grace periods have been gradually ending, the financial entities have reactivated the payments suspended during the economic emergency (…). Thus, as of August 2020, the percentage of the portfolio collected with respect to the gross balance reached 5.33%, a figure higher than that registered at the end of June when it represented 3.76%, although lower than the ratio reached at levels prior to the covid-19 pandemic “.

Lina Vargas Vega – lvargas@larepublica.com.co

Starting this month, the distribution alliance between Auteco and Bajaj ended and the Indian brand will be distributed in Colombia by the UMA Group. While the contract was signed, Bajaj motorcycles were the best-selling motorcycles in the country until May, when Yamaha was positioned as the leader in this market, according to records from the National Association for Sustainable Mobility (Andemos). By January, the country’s leader accounted for 23.4% of the motorcycles sold, while for August, Bajaj, in second place, held 19.4% of this market.

To continue with the broad participation in the Colombian market, Auteco signed an assembly and distribution contract with TVS Motor Company, and Carlos Durán, president of Auteco, spoke about the reasons for breaking relations with Bajaj, how they plan to regain leadership in the industry and your expectations with the new brand.

What does it mean to you to stop distributing Bajaj?

We represent the Bajaj brand in Colombia for more than three decades. During the last years and especially in the pandemic, we sat down to talk with them to re-evaluate the negotiation we had, the distribution contracts that were structured 30 years ago and the claims that Bajaj had did not allow the company to be sustainable in the long term . For this reason, it was strategically decided not to continue with its distribution.

For us this is part of an equation that had been defined almost five years ago of a risk that existed in this alliance, therefore it is not a representative loss.

Bajaj did not leave us, we left Bajaj because we are looking for a long-term business, we firmly believe that we can repeat that success that we had with Bajaj for 30 years, with a brand that has the credentials to be as important in Colombia as it is in the world.

Why sign with TVS?

We are satisfied because as of September we have signed an alliance with TVS, one of the companies with 120 years in the industry, a presence in 60 countries, one of the five main players in the market, and which offers Colombia a completely renewed, leveraged portfolio in innovation and quality, with which we will be able to offer our customers not only street motorcycle products, but also electric motorcycles, scooters, automatic and semi-automatic motorcycles; and motocarros, which will undoubtedly allow us to have the largest portfolio in the Colombian industry in January 2021.

Today we compete in the market with 55% of street motorcycles, with the entry of this new portfolio, we will be competing in the 90% market.

How did the market perform during the pandemic?

The market since the pandemic has contracted mainly due to credit limitations, 30% of motorcycles are sold with credit. The industry has contracted 25%, compared to last year, when we grew 11%. In January and February we were generating a 22% growth, the following months we reported a decrease compared to last year, when we sold 150,000 motorcycles.

What was the motorcycle line that moved the most during the pandemic?

Bajaj is the most representative line of the company, we have recovered the turnover in an average of 10,000 motorcycles per month but with the average of last year that we were selling between 13,000 and 14,000 motorcycles, it is a significant decrease. The other two brands in our portfolio, KTM and Husqvarna, have maintained a growth rate of 40%, which allows us to anticipate that they will have a good movement in the market. They are in high demand after the pandemic.

What has been affected is innovation due to the effect of covid-19 and the launches that we had planned for this year have had to be postponed a bit until the last quarter of the year, however we are confident that when these new motorcycles arrive By the end of the year we will have regained the leadership we had in the high-end category.

Paola Andrea Vargas Rubio – pvargas@larepublica.com.co

After the end of last month, the Financial Superintendence of Colombia reported that JP Morgan Corporación Financiera had filed a request for conversion approval to obtain the banking license in Colombia. The financial superintendent, Jorge Castaño, assured that the license requested by JP Morgan is to operate as a commercial bank.

In turn, Castaño said that this is not the only entity that is in process, since BTG Pactual has already filed its request and four financing companies are coming, which are Mercado Pago, Scotiabank-Colpatria, Ualá and Banco Santander.

According to Castaño, it is expected that these requests will be answered by December of this year.

This shows that the country’s financial system is betting on dynamism and is opening up to consumers the possibility of finding more options that allow them to choose the services and products that best suit their needs in the midst of a secure scheme, said Castaño.

News in development …

Financial Newspaper – Santiago

The bank, the largest in the United Kingdom, moved the money through its business in the United States to HSBC accounts in Hong Kong in 2013 and 2014, according to the confidential file.

The documents were leaked to the Buzzfeed portal and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists while the British investigative program Panorama led the investigation for the public channel BBC.

That chain indicated that the uncovered files detail what the role of that bank was in an investment fraud valued at US $ 80 million.

HSBC has always maintained that it complied with its legal obligations when reporting such activity.

The documents also show that the investment scam – known as the Ponzi scheme – began shortly after the British bank was sanctioned with a fine worth US $ 1.9 billion in the United States for money laundering operations and has since committed to eradicate such practices.

According to the BBC, lawyers for some of the investors who were duped in these operations considered that the entity should have taken steps earlier to close the accounts of the fraudsters.

The FinCEN files are 2,657 documents, including 2,100 Suspicious Activity Reports (or SARs), which include information on transactions that raise suspicions in the banks themselves.

They send these reports to the relevant authorities if they suspect that their clients are engaging in illicit activities and if they have evidence of criminal activity practices they should stop moving their money.

The leak shows how money was laundered by some of the world’s largest banks and how criminals used anonymous British companies to hide the money.

Fergus Shiel, part of that consortium, indicated that the files provide knowledge about “what the banks know about the vast flows of dirty money circulating around the globe.”

Kevin Steven Bohórquez Guevara – kbohoquez@larepublica.com.co

In approximately two weeks the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) will open the qualification phase for companies interested in fracking pilots. It will be a new process in which the entity will analyze several proposals, with the aim of defining who will be the contractors that will develop the entire research process in two key basins of these deposits: Cesar – Ranchería and Valle Medio del Magdalena.

The new call, which is expected to be defined no later than November 23 – the day on which the contracts will be awarded – will be the starting point for interested oil companies to formally begin work with the communities, their relationship in the territories and the Application for the environmental license before Anla.

Although not all those interested in the process are known yet, industry sources pointed out that there are already several market players who have shown interest in the development of pilot projects for comprehensive research (ppii). It is, in fact, Ecopetrol, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, which have already been preparing in recent months to carry out all the research in these two basins.

Ecopetrol, for example, has already shown interest in the Middle Magdalena Valley. “We are attentive to participate in the competitive process that the ANH has announced for the allocation of Special Contracts for Research Projects (Cepi) for the development of Pilot Projects for Integral Research (ppii), for which we are waiting for the definitive terms of reference that establish the contractual conditions, ”said Ricardo Gómez, vice president of unconventional deposits at Ecopetrol.

The manager stressed that they have estimated to make investments of up to US $ 127 million for the Ppii. “The times will depend on what is established in the regulation, but, as we have said before, the important thing is not to do it quickly, but to do it well,” he added.

ExxonMobil, for its part, is finalizing the details to finalize its alliance with Ecopetrol. At press time, the company did not answer a series of questions from LR. However, Gómez stressed that they are “working on the consolidation of that alliance that, if achieved, would allow us to have the experience of one of the largest companies in the world and with the greatest experience in the operation of unconventional deposits.”

Another of the companies is ConocoPhillips Colombia, which, under the command of Álex Martínez, country manager, has carried out important work with the communities where it operates for a long time. In fact, Martínez confirmed to LR a few months ago (before the pandemic) that they were analyzing investing US $ 100 million in two pilots.

“Although preliminary calculations by the ACP indicate that for the comprehensive pilot research projects an initial investment will be required for the exploratory phase of around US $ 650 million in the first years of the projects, the value of the investment would be determined by the regulations definitive, the requirements regarding projects and wells for the evaluation of the technique, and the complexity of the fulfillment of the requirements that they stipulate ”, highlighted Francisco Lloreda, president of the ACP.

Carlos Leal, president of the board of directors of Acipet, highlighted that, for now “if the award is given in November, it would be expected that from the second half of 2021 drilling of the wells would begin.”

This is the schedule of the call

Specifically, the ANH explained that there will be three phases in the schedule before the day of awarding the pilot contracts. Between October 5 and 9 will be the presentation of the documents to obtain the authorization of the participants, while the 29 of the same month will be the presentation of proposals. Thus, from November 23, contracts will be signed, which, according to the entity, will be under the framework of a Special Research Project Contract (Cepi), which will be signed under a consortium or only the company that remains with the assignment.

Lina Vargas Vega – lvargas@larepublica.com.co

Auteco, the motorcycle assembly brand that sells a third of the motorcycles registered in the country, will expand its portfolio thanks to its alliance with TVS Motor Company, the manufacturer of two- and three-wheeled vehicles.

With the union, it is expected to increase the supply of semi-automatic, automatic, motorcycle and electric motorcycles and to further expand the portfolio of street motorcycles in the 600 Auteco points of sale.

The alliance includes the assembly service at the Cartagena and Itagüí plants of the Colombian company, and the use of a specialized training center.

R Dilip, TVS Executive Vice President of International Business, stated “We are delighted to expand our presence in Colombia with a company with extensive experience in the region and that shares our customer-focused corporate value.”

For his part, Carlos Durán, president of Auteco, said about the alliance “with TVS we have a greater capacity to produce mobility solutions that Colombians need.”