Latin America best managed banks 2018: Colombia

Bogota-based financial firm Grupo Aval takes the prize for best managed bank in Colombia, stewarding not just one but four commercial banks (Banco de Bogota, Banco de Occidente, Banco Popular and Banco AV Villas), as well as a host of other finance and real estate-related ventures in Colombia and central America. 

While this multi-brand model means each lender is operated on a standalone basis (with all of the duplicate costs that entails), Aval is pursuing a strategy to improve operational efficiencies across the group by identifying potential areas of overlap such as those in digital banking and IT. 

In an interview with Euromoney last year, the group’s president Luis Carlos Sarmiento Gutiérrez did not entirely rule out a merger between all four banks, but for now the focus is on streamlining group-wide back-office functions.