Although the gross portfolio of credit establishments (banks, financial corporations, financing companies and financial cooperatives)) It has been registering real negative behavior for 23 monthsthe total credit has accelerated between July 2024 and January 2025, according to the recent financial stability report of the Bank of the Republic.
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The authors of the study, Diego Cuesta, Mariana Escobar, Camilo Gómez, Juan David Roa, Carlos Quicazán, Roberto Simancas and Miguel Sarmient They do not compromise the Bank of the Republic or the Board of Directors.
The report highlights that last January, credit growth was at -1.9%, 3.3 percentage points (PP) higher than July 2024.
According to the weekly information of the balance accounts, The total portfolio would continue to present real annual rates to February 2025. In this regard, it must be remembered that according to the Financial Superintendence, in February the gross balance of the portfolio added $ 713.1 billion, with a real drop of 1.1%.
The issuer’s report indicates that the recent behavior of the total portfolio responds mainly to the acceleration of the commercial and consumption portfolio, and the positive contributions of the housing and microcredit portfolio.
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Credits
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Housing and microcredit portfolios, in turn, They have positive real growth amid heterogeneities within each modality.
In housing, the Vis segment has promoted growth, while the NO VIS continues to present real annual contractions. For its part, the growth of the microcredit portfolio It has occurred in a context of a lower number of debtors and a higher average balance.
The report says that “The recent microcredit activity has been negatively affected by the changes in the form of calculation of the usury rate that were implemented in 2023, whose negative relationship with the financial deepening and inclusion was reviewed in the report of the first semester of 2024 ”.
Researchers at the Bank of the Republic say that the consumption portfolio continues to present negative values, although less and less contracts.
The above is consistent with a greater number of debtors in this modality And with a less restrictive position of banks to grant these credits in the recent past, says the report.
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Holman Rodríguez Martínez
Portfolio
