CARTAGENA, Colombia—Bancolombia’s acquisition of a 70% stake in Colombia’s MVNO Uff Móvil is a milestone for m-banking development in the country. The purchase means the same company will manage both the financial and telecommunication side if m-banking, making the process easier.
Nothing has been defined yet, but there is plenty of opportunity. “We aim to leverage financial services to the base of the social pyramid,” said Santiago Aldana, Uff Móvil’s CEO, during the ICT event Andicom this week (check out all stories).
When purchasing the stake in mobile virtual network operator, Colombia’s largest bank said its goal was to become more competitive by offering more customers access to financial services. According to data presented by Aldana, most lower income Colombians do not have bank accounts: 36% of population is not banked, while 36% are sub-banked. Only 28% of the total population have a bank account. The growth potential is huge.
“We all have mobile phones,” Aldana said. “We are exploring a large number of alternatives and working with different sectors, such as transportation, retail, and stores as well as transactions between individual people.”
Indeed, Bancolombia’s entry into the telephony market could speed things up, since for many years both m-payment and m-banking markets could not take off because of a lack of agreement between the two markets.
Speaking to RCR Wireless News, Carlos Andrés Rebellón, executive director of the Colombian telecommunications regulator, CRC, said that Bancolombia might take advantage of Uff Móvil’s capillarity. “Mobile banking will grow in the country, and we are watching to help develop this market,” he said.
