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Best Bank: Bancolombia |
Bancolombia is a formidable local bank. Despite the economic slowdown and plunging peso, the bank still recorded a 49% increase in first-quarter net profits, the highest in the sector. Overall, the privately owned Colombian banking sector reported a 37% increase in first-quarter profits from a year earlier.
The country’s second-largest bank, Banco de Bogotá, posted a net profit of Ps176.2 billion ($86.5 million) in its first-quarter results, up 35% on the year before. Among the foreign banks, BBVA’s Colombian unit reported the biggest profits.
However, despite these strong first-quarter results, Bancolombia’s chief executive, Jorge Londoño, said in an interview with Euromoney in April that he was expecting a lower growth rate in 2009: “We are aspiring to grow our loans by about 10% this year. I think most of this growth will come from the corporate loans and big infrastructure projects. Demand for consumer lending has declined a lot.”
However, mortgage lending remains a priority too. “We have to be careful because of the financial slowdown but we are still bullish on the mortgage sector,” he said.
