Banco Itaú in Colombia, one of the largest subsidiaries of the Brazilian group, reported a profit of $87,371 million at the end of 2021. Its President, Baruc Sáez, assured that they expect to increase their customer base in the country by between 5% and 10% this year; They will also continue the process of digital transformation of financial asset by launching new products such as apps for corporate clients.
How do you balance Itaú’s financial results in Colombia in 2021?
The balance is very positive. It has been a very satisfying experience personally and professionally, which I will be completing one and a half years in my assignments at Itaú Colombia. We have realized a very important transformation inside and outside, we have improved the digitalization percentage of products, and we have started the transformation process of the bank.
If there are very positive numbers compared to 2020, we had a result of $87,371 million after extraordinary expenses and restructuring costs. It is very similar to 2019, but the quality of revenue is much better.
How did the loan behave and what are the most important lines?
In 2021, the bank grew more than 20% in consumption or retail banking. The other segment is construction, we are one of the main banks lending to contractors in Colombia; and our loan portfolio in this segment has grown by over 15%.
How many customers do you have and what is your forecast for this year?
In total, we have nearly 400,000 customers, 365 thousand of which are retail banking. The projection is to consolidate and grow this customer base by at least 5% to 10%.
How was the commission representative last year? Have OPAs Boosted the Stock Market?
We are very active in corporate finance and the broker has a very important role in this development, making a profit of $ 16,266 million.
We do not directly participate in OPAs, but do participate indirectly due to the dynamism that occurs at transaction levels, which helps us increase volumes. What also helped was the level of the streams. money. Commission agency is very important to us because we have the goal of being the leading bank in corporate finance and investment banking.
How is Itaú doing in the first three months of 2022 and what are your predictions for the end of this year?
We are very focused on transforming the bank, not only deepening the customer base, but also digitizing many processes, especially customer service. In addition to the technology investment we regularly make every year, we have an investment of over 120,000 million dollars in digital. We aim to achieve profitability comparable to that of Colombia’s leading banks by 2023 or 2024.
What new products will you launch this year?
Loans with high expectations living space Approved online, an effort from both the approval and disbursement of the loan, a simple process that we want to do digitally. We are also looking for more investment fund openings, a more agile customer service via WhatsApp, and an app for corporate banking customers.
When will you launch the online housing loan product?
The plan is to launch for the second or third quarter. We already have a section on the evaluation of housing loans, which will be launched this month, so it will be possible to look at what the borrowing capacity is.
Source: Lare Publica
