With 4.9 million Colombians traveling abroad, as happened in 2022, as well as with the arrival of US$9,428 million in remittances last year, The appetite for offering accounts in dollars has increased and it is not only traditional banks that offer these products with their subsidiaries, but also fintech ones.
(Read: New option: save in digital euros and face devaluation).
Said financial products that are offered abroad, since they cannot be opened in Colombia, have other characteristics such as maximum operations per month, or serve in combination to make investments and in most cases they allow transactions from web pages.
In response to consumer demand, banks and other institutions are beginning to offer a new type of bank account: the multi-currency account, which promises to give flexibility to Colombians who work and travel abroad and to investors.
“Consumers are looking for more currency options when it comes to their own income, savings and investments.”, comments Rodrigo Silva, Senior Vice President of Sales for Latin America at Temenos, a firm that provides banking software to more than 3,000 banks in the world.
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He adds that “multi-currency accounts are starting to arrive at just the right time for a growing number of Colombians at home and abroad”.
Temenos says that there are four banks in Colombia -Bancolombia, Itaú, Banco de Bogotá and Davivienda- that can offer their clients a physical account in dollars, but the minimum opening ranges from $5,000 to $25,000a sum that is very high for Colombians.
“The requirements for opening these accounts abroad, over $25 million, will mean a rejection for millions of Colombians who seek to diversify their finances,” Silva explains.
And it highlights that “fintech companies and neobanks are coming with the promise of offering banking for everyone instead of thinking only of those with high net worth.”
(Keep reading: The revaluation of the peso reached 5% so far this year).
A fintech with a multi-currency account is the Chilean Global66, that arrived in Colombia in October 2022 and offers low expenses, few income requirements, There are no maintenance costs and clients can maintain their assets in dollars, pesos and other currencies, they can also send and receive transfers from 65 countries.
Silva says that “Another to take into account is the British Revolut, which started operations in 2015 and has expanded to 28 countries. It recently opened offices in Mexico and Brazil, and it is only a matter of time before it reaches Colombia.”.
Bancolombia indicates that according to national regulations, Colombians can only have accounts in Colombian legal currency, that is, in pesos. But those nationals who wish to have an account in dollars have the option of opening it directly in one of Bancolombia’s subsidiaries abroad.
For its part, Davivienda has a mobile application with functionality in Miami. There you can request from a cashier’s check to a credit card.
In the case of Banco de Bogotá, through its entities in New York and Miami, It allows you to open an account in dollars to optimize the management of your resources without limit of transactions.
(See: Peso vs. dollar: after 2 months, the market ‘is’ on the Colombian side).
Itaú also allows the opening of an account abroad through correspondents.
In the case of BBVA, the services are available to customers in the high-value segment with accounts from US$100,000 and are opened through BBVA Spain and BBVA Switzerland.
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