Best bank: Banco Pichincha
The Ecuadorian economy slowed significantly in 2023 and was largely driven by public-sector spending. The impact of new president Daniel Noboa, who won the November 2023 election, has yet to be seen, but liquidity remains a persistent issue for the dollarized economy. Seeking scale seems to be the best defence against the country’s regular dollar shortages and in this environment the large banks thrive.
There is no better proof of this than Banco Pichincha’s continued outperformance. The bank closed 2023 with 5.6 million clients – a significant total in the context of the country’s total population of 16.9 million. Despite this dominance there was still room for growth, with the bank growing its client base by 11% during the awards period.
In the past year Pichincha focused – as did many of the retail banks – on digital and continued to deliver on its 2018 digital transformation strategy. A little more than 90% of all new clients were delivered through digital channels, compared with 78% the previous year. And despite the common focus on improving digital services throughout the Ecuadorian banking sector, Pichincha was able to find room for differentiation and is the only bank in the market that provides access for visually impaired customers.
Pichincha also caters well for the broader market and has been targeting an improved net promoter score as a key retention strategy for both retail and corporate clients, as well as developing specific digital products to onboard clients that have previously been unbanked. The number of the bank’s digital customers has grown by 72% since 2021.
The broad approach to growing all areas of its business paid off handsomely again in 2023. Pichincha’s total loan portfolio grew by 10.3% in 2023, while deposits grew by 9.3%. In total, the bank claimed a 28.4% market share of deposits – up 70 basis points in the year – which highlights the continued consolidation of the financial system. The bank’s focus on digitization has helped to improve its efficiency ratio to 51.3% at the end of 2023, down nearly three percentage points year on year. Greater productivity also helped with profitability, with return on equity nudging up to 11.6% from 11.4% year on year.
Best bank for corporate responsibility: Banco Pichincha
Banco Pichincha targeted a variety of causes in 2023, launching social welfare initiatives that addressed financial inclusion, sports programmes and education in Ecuador.
It allocated $9 million to various initiatives including scholarships, the promotion of sports, financial education, donations, sponsorship of the Crisfe Foundation and support for philanthropic projects.
The bank’s sports promotion programme supported 82 athletes with sponsorships and educational scholarships in 2023. The bank’s scholarship programmes identified 1,531 students at risk of leaving education and worked with to enable them to remain in the system.
Banco Pichincha also formed an alliance to promote the first value chain financing programme in the dairy sector. The objective was to promote financial sustainability and improve conditions for small producers.
Best bank for diversity and inclusion: Banco Pichincha
Last year, Banco Pichincha introduced programmes that champion female empowerment, special needs and human rights causes.
The bank launched its Women Leader Pichincha programme in 2023 to strengthen the professional development and leadership of women at Banco Pichincha. The programme focuses on self-awareness of equity, support in sisterhood, as well as innovation focused on women for equality. The bank ran three sessions throughout 2023, totalling 40 hours.
The bank focused on its second core objective of internal change in 2023, incorporating a diversity and inclusion management model into its organization. This includes three sectors: gender, family and labour inclusion.
