8. Online Banking Services
Colombia
The social and political climate towards online banking is very positive. There are no official figures at this point. Yet, non-official figures indicate that online banking has been growing 50% on a yearly basis as compared to the previous year.
FinTechs intending to offer traditional banking services must obtain an authorization from the Colombian State. Banking services can only be provided by authorized banks. The specific requirements to incorporate a bank in Colombia can be found in the Colombian Financial System Statute.
To provide online banking services, banks must comply with the general quality standards and security requirements for data handling as stablished by the basic legal circular issued by the Finance Superintendency. Mainly, banks are required to:
- Have a two-factor authentication system.
- Have a data encryption system for transactions over 2 monthly wages. For 2017, such amount corresponds to COP $ 1.475.434, roughly USD $ 500
- Have a system that avoids duplicity of the operations due to communication issues.
There are no official figures as to this point. Yet, although most of the banks have online banking platforms, non-official figures show that 90% of the transactions in Colombia are still done in cash.
Alvaro Parra Gómez
Bogota, Colombia
Bernardo Rodríguez Ossa
Bogota, Colombia