Carlos Iván Villegas, president of the financing company Tuya, is nominated for the 2022 Portfolio Awards in the category of best business leader and says that the firm has been the access channel, for the first time, to the financial system, for 1.5 million people.
What does it mean to be a leader?
Excited about this Portfolio Awards nomination. I see being the leader of Tuya as an opportunity to stimulate teams with a positive impact towards the result, with actions for shared value.
It is the difference of working for an income and developing, because when a higher purpose is sought, it is transcended. I try to inspire my team with the vision of the country. It is important to generate economic value, but over time this concept has been expanding and now social value must be generated. Similarly, we have chosen from the Sustainable Development Goals to work to reduce poverty, gender equality, decent work and eliminate inequalities.
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And with Tuya, how to promote leadership?
Building a more prosperous and just Colombia. It is important to be the vehicle for it. The Tuya model is what allows this unique possibility and also more to join. Éxito was the first ally with which clients could have financial services incorporating cards, microinsurance and digital wallets. When you reach Éxito and with only your identity card you can leave with a credit card, that promotes access to financial services. Subsequently, more allies such as Alkosto joined and the new open banking trends were incorporated. This issue of open finance allows Colombians to enter retail with Éxito, Alkosto, Viva and now Claro, and we are going to start helping with directed loans, which in the case of Claro has more than 20 million customers. And the advances of the pilot are important to recharge the Tullave card.
What is Tuya’s target audience?
More than 80% of Colombians who earn a salary of up to $2 million, as well as Colombians neglected by the financial system. By looking in the rearview mirror, we have opened the door to 1.5 million Colombians who did not have a formal product. We are excited to see an important group of Colombians create a credit history. We want to see banking as banking as a service (with banking products tailored to customers). We are a company with financial infrastructure, MasterCard license and API products, which can be connected with other systems to bring more services and products that generate loyalty.
We want to have more allies and reach more Colombians. Large surfaces, mass transportation, telecommunications. For example, public service companies that might be interested in our services and we could continue advancing there.
How is 2022 ending for the company?
2022 was good, because there was growth in the economy and we are a reflection of how the allies fared. The good sales of Éxito, Alkosto, Viva, Claro and the growth of this financing was important.
The portfolio balance will be $4.7 trillion, which in the consumer portfolio the growth of the balance is 30% and is the dynamics of what is seen in the country. It implies responsibility with that portfolio. 650,000 new credit cards entered. We are not obsessed with that number but it is a record and means almost $1 billion in disbursements.
At Tuyapay we are going to close with close to one million customers. In financial matters, the alliance with Bancolombia and Éxito is solid.
Will they issue bonds or some other type of security in the future?
In the next few days we are going to issue hybrid social bonds for the financing and refinancing of clients. They are social because the resources raised will be for financing low-income customers and the categories in which the resources are spent will be on welfare, food, transportation. It will be the first for $50,000 million in the first two weeks of December. In addition, we have approved a total of $150,000 million. They will be aimed at the second market (professional investors), especially pension funds.
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How are you doing with the issue of high interest rates?
They certainly have an impact and I hope that in the second half of the next year the DTF will drop. High interest rates begin to limit access to credit. These are interest rates that have grown but what I want is for the macro conditions to change and for them to begin to adjust to a more favorable environment. But behind all that we accompany the clients because you have to take care of yourself and look at the levels of indebtedness.
How will the tax reform affect them?
Same as the financial sector. The surcharge, which initially was for a while and then decreased, now seems to be of a more permanent nature and is putting pressure on the company’s profitability. It is necessary to see how much this surcharge affects the profitability of the business.
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