Bancoldex increases loan portfolio to SMEs


Loans from Colombia's state-owned export development bank Bancoldex to micro, small- and medium-sized enterprises will probably account for 35 per cent of the bank's total lending by December this year, Bancoldex said in a press release.

Currently 32 per cent of Bancoldex' lending is directed to SMEs, compared to only 7 per cent in December 2001, the statement added.

Bancoldex' medium-term objective is to direct its activities toward important sub-sectors that are not sufficiently financed by financial institutions.

The bank's lending to SMEs rose dramatically in the first half of this year by 99 per cent to 407bn pesos (US$153.4m) compared to the same period 2003.

“The lending portfolio of the bank is migrating from large companies towards those of small- and medium-sized,” Bancoldex president Gustavo Ardila Latiff said in a conference.

Bancoldex' total loan portfolio is currently worth 3.3tn pesos (US$1.3bn)

Source: BNamericas.com...



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