Financial Services

The Colombian Stock Exchange (Bolsa de Valores de Colombia, BVC) was created in 2001 by merging the three independent stock exchanges that had been operating simultaneously since 1983. Market capitalisation increased consistently after its creation – helped by several state-owned companies going public – before reaching an all-time high of 70....

The Colombian government debt segment is the largest in the country in terms of traded volume, and one of the largest and most liquid of its kind in Latin America – with a total amount outstanding of COP230trn ($69bn), or 26.3% of GDP, and an average monthly traded volume of COP100trn ($30bn) in 2016. Colombian government bonds, widely known...

Derivatives are financial instruments that are derived from an underlying asset, such as a stock, an exchange index, bonds, currency, interest rates and raw materials, among other things. There are two categories of derivatives: standardised, which are traded through a stock exchange such as the Colombia Stock Exchange (Bolsa de Valores de...

Colombia has a floating exchange regime, which allows the currency to work as a shock absorber under local and global economic events. Transactions in the foreign exchange market are done through the Exchange Market Intermediaries (Intermediarios del Mercado Cambiario, IMC) and are registered in the SET-FX electronic trading platform.

Colombia’s corporate bond segment is an important component of the country’s capital market, despite its relatively small size and liquidity. The total amount outstanding at the end of 2016 was COP48.1tn ($14.4bn), or an estimated 5.5% of GDP.

As in many emerging markets, deepening the banking system and boosting financial inclusion have presented challenges for the Colombian banking sector. Rapid improvements in – and the dissemination of – internet and mobile phone technology in recent years have led to increased take-up of mobile banking services. Policymakers see this channel as...