Women face more difficulties in accessing credit in Colombia, experts say

Despite significant progress in financial inclusion, Colombia still faces significant challenges in equitable access to credit for women, which is crucial for their economic autonomy and long-term stability. The Financial Well-Being Index (IBFC) for 2024, developed by Banca de las Oportunidades, reveals that a gap of 0.66 points between women and men persists in accessing financial products, highlighting an important opportunity for the implementation of fairer policies.

The index highlights particularly notable gaps in insurance, transactional and financial products, where women score 0.7, 0.6 and 0.6 points lower respectively, compared to their male counterparts. However, the widest gap is observed in access to credit, with an IBFC of 5.6 for women compared to 6.4 for men.

Clara Escobar, executive director of the Association of Financing Companies (AFIC), comments: "This difference directly affects women's opportunity to undertake, invest in education and generate economic stability, key elements for their well-being and that of their families in the long term."

The main avenues for accessing formal financing in Colombia include family compensation funds, employee funds, banks and finance companies. However, the lack of access to formal credit pushes many into informality, a sector where conditions are often less favourable and more risky.

Recently, changes in the usury rate have imposed additional challenges, making it difficult for financial institutions to provide credit to vulnerable or unbanked sectors, disproportionately affecting women with limited credit histories or variable incomes.

Escobar adds that according to a study by ANIF, "for every percentage point reduction in the usury rate, the growth of the consumer credit portfolio decreases by 0.73 percentage points, which further restricts the supply of financing, especially for female entrepreneurs and self-employed workers , who are mostly single mothers."

This decline in the supply of formal credit encourages greater reliance on informal credit, such as "gota a gota" loans where rates can be extremely high, compromising the financial stability of many women.

In order to rectify this situation, they have proposed adjusting the methodology for calculating the Current Bank Interest Rate (IBC), differentiating the types of credit, which would allow more equitable access to credit products for women. The proposal suggests maintaining competitive rates that allow financial institutions to offer credit to higher-risk sectors without excluding female entrepreneurs and independent workers.

According to the ANIF study, the adoption of this proposal could increase the real growth of the consumer portfolio by 4.9%, equivalent to 10 billion additional pesos in financing, directly supporting women in situations of financial risk and promoting broader and fairer inclusion in the country's economic sector.

*This content was rewritten with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on information from AFIC, and reviewed by a journalist and an editor.