María Lorena Gutiérrez Botero assumed the presidency of Grupo Aval* in March, the largest financial group in Colombia, with investments in various sectors of the economy and that operates through Bank of Bogotá, Banco of the West, Banco Popular and Banco AV Villas, the private pension and severance fund Porvenir and Corficolombiana. And with a presence in the financial sector in Central America and in the real sector in South America.
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What is the orientation you will give to Grupo Aval?
This is the largest business group in the country and what encourages me about Grupo Aval is that it mixes the financial sector, which has banks and pensions, but also has the real sector through Corficolombiana, which are investments in key sectors of the economy. It is a group that can contribute a lot to the development of Colombia as it has done in recent decades. Through the financial system, the economy has been energized and savings have been moved to be productive through credits, and in our case we also have to continue investing in the real sector through Corfi, plus the issue of pensions. .
That is what encourages me the most, that we can support the development of this country and as a group that is what we want, and we say that we are a group with the country because we really do it, it is not a slogan, but what we do is work for this country.
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What is your vision of the financial system, with lower profits, decline in the portfolio, apart from its deterioration. Is that over yet?
The financial system has shown that it is resilient and that it can overcome crises and it did so when Covid happened or when we had economic crises several years ago. Now we have a special situation and that is that more than half of the banks are having losses and not only in the months, but accumulated losses and that affects solvency, that is, there is less capacity to move those resources to lend them, to boost the economy. It is worrying because the financial system is fundamental for investment in this country and by not providing more credit, since savings have also decreased, this shows a slowdown that could be much stronger in the country.
María Lorena Gutiérrez, president of Grupo Aval.
How to ensure that investment is reactivated again?
One, the board of the Banco de la República needs to lower rates. At this moment the interest rate is 4 real points above inflation, that is, it is a very large spread and they have room to lower it. What we heard from the Board of the Banco de la República is that we believe that inflation will not continue to fall or that it may rise; But the truth is I think it is a way to strangle economic growth in every sense. Companies in general in the results of this quarter are incredible to see, in sales more or less they were growing somewhat, but the financial cost is taking away the profit. What is profit for in companies, well to invest, that is, you have profit and you come back and invest. One of the most important things is the issue of rates, which not only affects investment, but also affects anyone, because they are charging us much higher rates for loans and that has also led to banks, Since consumption grew so much after the pandemic and many people stopped paying their loans, then they have to provision and by doing so, all their profits also decrease and their solvency decreases, that is the first condition.
The second is one thing that I admire about this group and it is its commitment to investment, which it does through Corficolombiana, which invests more than a billion pesos in all these sectors, but also the banks, that is, it is an investment. that you have to leverage others.
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And among these others, the Government is key because if there are no projects, then there is no where to invest, then we need infrastructure projects to be formulated, housing projects to be promoted and encouraged, well, because that is the way and there the Government is fundamental in that, with incentives through subsidies, for example in housing, but in infrastructure, projects have to come out already structured in what the Government has called, the multimodal that it is going to launch in 5 G that has rail, river, highways , but we need them now. And those are projects that can really begin to generate growth in two or three years, because it is necessary to obtain licenses, consult, buy land, etc. So you do have to have those projects structured. There the role of the Government is very important and I believe that the issue of trust is not the sole responsibility of the Government. Together we are also generating greater uncertainty. With the economy, politics is not done, so there is no need to do politics, neither from the private sector nor from the public sector. Do politics with what you want, but not with the country’s economy.
We have to build trust, leave pessimism, leave the cocktail comment that we don’t know where it’s going and work. What we have to do here is work and send messages of trust to all sectors, to the entire country.
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What are the achievements and where is the Guajira Mission going, which you have executed with the Government?
Grupo Aval has always been characterized by supporting various social works, such as the Ctic Foundation, this large hospital with the best technology in Latin America for cancer treatment. Various universities and social causes have been supported. Working on this issue of La Guajira is not new for the group, that is, working on issues of social contribution is not new. What is new is the medium-term commitment to a project, in one of the poorest departments, with a high rate of child deaths, and the truth is that it was an approach that arose between the Government and various economic groups, and we were excited to get involved in the Guajira for being able to execute and change the lives of those communities, of those children. We are very committed. For now our region is La Guajira, we are going to do everything possible. We committed to giving water and electricity to 80 communities, we started in January of this year and we have already graduated 9 communities, that is, 9 communities already have electricity and water and our task between now and December or January 2025 is that the 80 communities have water and electricity.
Andrés Mompotes, María Lorena Gutierrez Botero and Miguel Largacha.
And on any other particular projects in that department?
We work on food security with the Government and we do want to do some projects for the sustainability of the people, because people have to generate resources to be able to live. So we are working on a craft center, let’s see if we can set them up, which in that region are spectacular, but they don’t know how to sell, market, or quality standards. So we do want to contribute to setting up a center for all artisan women in La Guajira.
The Government is working on a bill to save the Manaure Salt Flats, which generate a lot of employment in that part, since the most serious problem is in Alta Guajira, where Manaure and Uribia are because it is a desert and the communities are very dispersed. We hope this bill comes out. This is a Government initiative and see how later we can help it truly become a sustainable company without us getting involved, but suddenly with consulting support, with financial support, but not getting involved in the administration of the salt flats.
Corficolombiana is well positioned in terms of sustainability and you went there. What is Grupo Aval going to do now in this matter?
The Aval Group has been cautious in promoting everything it does because when you look at everything banks do, what Porvenir does in terms of sustainability is impressive and so is Corfi. When I arrived we organized how to send messages about what we do and what we have a social and environmental impact. I am also going to work on how to show the country everything we do on sustainability issues.
(See: ‘The moment is challenging and the banks are a reflection of it’).
Do you have any mission regarding the internationalization of Grupo Aval?
The group is open to projects in general in Colombia or abroad. We are also looking for projects outside the real sector. In other words, we are always open to projects here or there, because our commitment is to invest.
Is there a vision about having fewer, but stronger entities?
What we want is to be more efficient, continue growing and continue contributing. It’s not about size.
What do you think about women’s empowerment in all areas?
Beyond gender, I firmly believe in diversity. The best decisions are made when there are different points of opinion and that occurs in the diversity of strata. There is nothing better than having people from different social strata to make decisions. Of gender, of race. The best decisions are when you have a diverse team and that is where the issue of women comes in. Why work on the issue of women, because I believe in diversity and because I believe that diverse teams, and it has been proven, the fact of having women in the management teams, on the boards of directors, increases the value and profitability of the companies. companies. It’s not a cliché, it’s because we are different and men are different, neither is better than the other. We have different qualities and that diversity is where value is added. I am not a big friend of quotas, of saying that because I am a woman. I allow myself to talk about the topic of being a woman and leading a company because I learned especially when I was dean of Administration at the Universidad de los Andes that one becomes a reference for young women and since I have been an educator, it motivates me to continue. making one can have those big challenges.
What do you think of the reforms that are being made in Congress?
The country always needs reforms, I mean, I am not against reforms, because one can always improve, but I think it is not the right time because of what is happening with the economy, because these reforms and the way in which they have been presented today and as they are being discussed, if one sees it objectively, what they are doing is generating more uncertainty to an uncertainty that already exists in the economy and in the country. So nobody knows what is going to happen with health, nobody knows what is going to happen with pensions, people are scared with a possible labor reform, so that is what makes everyone stand still to see what It is going to happen and that is the worst thing that can happen to a country when it has an economy that is slowing down.
(See: 94.6% of adults had a financial product in 2023).
What do you think of the proposal that banks make forced investments?
I believe that there are other more important measures to boost credit in certain sectors. Forced investments go through the Congress of the Republic. In general, forced investments do not affect the financial sector as much as the industrial and productive sector and this is not the time to affect the sectors.
With a forced investment, what is done is to redirect the credit towards one or two sectors, but surely what I understand is that they are going to redirect it to certain sectors, which are not the ones that drive the growth of the economy and it is a measure that It will wear you down in discussions. Forced investment initiatives have not been approved in the Congress of the Republic in recent decades and not by the financial sector, but by the industrial sector, by the industrial sector companies.
HOLMAN RODRÍGUEZ MARTÍNEZ
Briefcase
*Grupo Aval is a shareholder of EL TIEMPO, in turn, owner of Portafolio.
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