Financial Inclusion Report 2017

This report is the result of collective efforts made by the government of Colombia to analyze the current state of financial inclusion in the country. It constitutes a complete and timely tool to continue to implement public policies, which will result in greater access and usage of financial services in the country.

Some of the main findings in the report are:

1. There is at least one access point to the financial system across all Colombian municipalities since early 2015.
2. Between 2016 and 2017, the number of points of access increased by 10.5 percent. This increase is explained by the behavior of bank correspondents and POS terminals, which increased 11.5 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively.
3. Fragile financial coverage municipalities (those with one or two correspondents and no bank branches) went from 34 in 2016 to three by late 2017.
4. Mobile phone transactions had the highest growth rate between 2016 and 2017, increasing in number by 67.6 percent and in amount by 71 percent.
5. Out of all transactions made in the financial system, in terms of transacted amount, the most frequent were payments and transfers, representing 35 percent on average ($5,071 trillion out of the total).
6. The largest share on average transacted amounts corresponded to the ACH channel, with 42 percent, followed by the Internet with 26 percent, and bank branches with 23 percent.
7. On average, every adult conducted 86 virtual transactions annually.