Financial portability will be the new north in the system

Similar to how a person can take their cell phone number to a different operator with which they acquired it, citizens may request the transfer of financial products that they have in an entity monitored by the Financial Superintendence of Colombia to another, together with the general and transactional information associated with them.

(Read: They denounce irregularities in contracting in the Ministry of Mines).

The so-called financial portability will be supported, in accordance with the provisions of the Development Plan (article 75), by the manifest intention of the user to the new entity of carry one or more financial productsand the latter must begin the portability study in order to rule on said request.

For David Ballesteros, country manager for Colombia at Belvo, an open finance platform present in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, the entities They can even offer people who are not their customers the possibility of giving them credits and other products with more favorable conditions.

In this sense, says the executive, with financial portability it will be possible to obtain savings in rates, commissions, processes and lower interest rates in credit products.

Thus, he considered that apart from making progress in terms of inclusion and financial education, there will be progress on issues such as competitiveness and innovation.

(Also: Is it necessary to have money in the account to obtain a US visa?).

The National Development Plan also establishes in its article 71, in relation to open data, (open data) that with the purpose of promoting competition and innovation for financial and credit inclusion, “State entities that make up the branches of public power and all legal persons of a private nature, must give access and provide all information that can be used to facilitate access to financial products and services, without prejudice to the exceptions to their access and information confidentiality guarantees”.

Likewise, it ensures that the National Government will regulate standards “to guarantee the proper functioning of the scheme, the recipients and the conditions of access to information, the security, operational, technological standards and the other aspects necessary to fulfill the purpose of facilitating access to financial products and services.

For Ballesteros, apart from the financial system, fintech companies could also benefit from the model and help as many people as possible, regardless of their socioeconomic status.reach a formal bancarization.

(Keep reading: Inflation ‘bites’ into a chunk of good stock dividends.)

He warned that the regulation of these processes must be accompanied by massive awareness and financial education campaigns that show people the benefits, as well as security and integrity factors to prevent the information from being used for other purposes.

He said that Belvo in Colombia has clients and although it is not a regulated entity, “if the Government establishes that those who provide open banking services obtain licenses, we will do it.”

Open banking is the concept that implies that Individuals can share their financial information with regulated or unregulated entities. The initiative is the one that is launched first and that is related to the following two terms.
Open finance is when the person not only shares their financial information but also with other types of industries such as cell phones, health insurance, etc. to have better customer information.

And open data allows sharing a wider range of information,
such as tax issues and other types of purchases that enrich a person’s credit profile.

BRIEFCASE