Over 96% Of Colombian Adults Now In Formal Financial Sector

The Financial Superintendence of Colombia (SFC) and Banca de las Oportunidades (BdOp) presented the results of the Financial Inclusion Report (RIF) 2024, which reflect the country’s progress and opportunities in access to and use of the products offered by the financial system.

In 2024, the percentage of adults who had at least one deposit or credit product increased by 1.7 percentage points (pp), standing at 96.3% compared to 94.6% in 2023.

On the other hand, the number of adults with at least one deposit product was 37.1 million at the end of 2024, which represents 95.8% of adults in Colombia. This behavior represents an increase of two pp compared to 2023, equivalent to 1.2 million new adults with deposit products.

In this segment, the most popular deposit products were savings accounts, whose an indicator was 82.4% of the adult population, followed by low-amount deposits (DBM), with 76.1%. The usage indicators stood at 54.9% and 64%, respectively.

Data by regions and segments

In deposit products, the coffee region registered universal levels of access and use. It was followed by the Central East region with universal access levels and use of 89.9%. In contrast, the Caribbean (68.3%) and Pacific (67.7%) regions presented the lowest indicators in terms of levels of use.

The financial system faces challenges in closing gaps between rural and urban areas, since in the former, access to financial products is 65.6%, while in the latter, this figure is 100%. As for use, in rural areas it is 53.4%, while in urban areas it reaches 89.3%.

Another persistent challenge in the financial system is closing gender gaps, since, although there has been progress in women’s financial inclusion, they continue to have lower levels of access and use compared to men (with gaps of 6.9 and 4.4 pp, respectively).

By age groups, adults between 41 and 65 years of age registered the highest access to deposit products (99.8%), while young people between 18 and 25 years of age led in active use of low-amount deposits (81.8%). Those over 65 years of age recorded the lowest levels of use in accessing deposits.

More access to credit and insurance

Access to credit offered by entities in the financial system increased slightly in 2024. This indicator stood at 35.5% of the adult population, which is equivalent to an increase of 0.2 pp compared to 2023. However, it has not yet reached pre-pandemic levels, when the measurement was higher than 36%.

For the first time, the RIF included information related to access to credit products offered by formal non-financial entities in the real sector such as mobile phone companies and those in the commerce sector, among others, bringing the indicator of access to credit to 50.5% (adding the financial sector and the real sector), equivalent to 19.6 million adults with at least one financing product.

Access to credit in 2024 continued to be concentrated among men, especially between the ages of 26 and 65 living in urban areas, while microcredit continued to decline with a reduction of 0.4 pp, closing at 6.2% of adults with at least one microcredit.

It should be noted that women have more frequent access to microcredit, but receive lower amounts in relation to men. In 2024, 929 microcredits were disbursed to women for every 10,000 adults, while 763. The average amount was $6.9 million COP for women and $8.4 million COP for men.

As for credit cards, access increased to 23.3%, consolidating itself as the most used financing product by the population, but it is still concentrated in urban environments. Consumer credit fell to 19%, with a decrease of 0.4 pp compared to 2023. Housing credit had a slight upturn, but its penetration is still low, with 3.1% of adults with this product, and continues to be concentrated in large cities.

For its part, the Colombian insurance industry had a slight increase in terms of penetration in 2024, reaching 3.3% of GDP, i.e, 0.1 pp more than in 2023. The mass insurance market continues to grow and diversify, accounting for 33.1% of written premiums. Even though the percentage of debtors’ group life had decreased, this line and the Mandatory Traffic Accident Insurance (SOAT) continue to be the main lines of business in this segment. In contrast, it is observed that the microinsurance market maintains a low participation, representing 2% of written premiums.

Business Financial Inclusion

The indicator of access to financial products for legal entities in Colombia stood at 72.5% in 2024, a slight drop of 0.6 pp compared to 2023.

In this group, the current credit indicator was 26.7%, with an increase of 0.6 pp, and the indicator of access to deposit products reached 72.4%, with a drop of 0.5 pp compared to 2023.

Financial education. Photo credit: Banca de las Oportunidades/Facebook.