Very similar to how a person can take their cell phone number to a different operator with which they acquired it, citizens may request the transfer of financial products that they have in an entity supervised by the Financial Superintendence of Colombia to another, along with the general and transactional information associated with them. The so-called financial portability will be supported, in accordance with the provisions of the Development Plan (article 75), by the manifest intention of the user to the new entity to carry one or more financial products, and this must start the portability study to in order to rule on said request.
David Ballesteros, country manager for Colombia at Belvo, an open finance platform present in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, pointed out that entities may even offer people who are not their clients the possibility of giving them loans and other products with more favorable conditions. In this sense, says the executive, with financial portability it will be possible to obtain savings in rates, commissions, processes and lower interest rates in credit products.
Thus, he considered that apart from making progress in terms of inclusion and financial education, there will be progress on issues such as competitiveness and innovation. The National Development Plan also establishes in its article 71, in relation to open data, (open data) that with the purpose of promoting competition and innovation for financial and credit inclusion, “the state entities that make up the branches of the public power and all legal persons of a private nature, must give access and supply all information that can be used to facilitate access to financial products and services, without prejudice to the exceptions to their access and the guarantees of confidentiality of information. .
He also assured that the National Government will regulate rules to guarantee the proper functioning of the scheme, the recipients and the conditions of access to information, the security, operational, and technological standards and the other aspects necessary to fulfill the purpose of facilitating access to products. and financial services.
For David Ballesteros, apart from the financial system, fintech companies could also benefit from the model and help the largest number of people, regardless of their socioeconomic status, achieve formal banking access. He warned that the regulation of these processes must be accompanied by massive awareness and financial education campaigns that show people the benefits, as well as security and integrity factors to prevent the information from being used for other purposes.
Finally, open banking is the concept that implies that people can share their financial information with regulated or non-regulated entities. The initiative is the one that is launched first and that is related to the following two terms. Open finance is when the person not only shares their financial information but also with other types of industries such as cell phones, health insurance, etc. to have better customer information.