Looking at some banks’ growth in Central America it is clear why neighbouring Colombian lenders are so interested in expanding outside of their national borders.
Last year, BAC Credomatic, a leading banking franchise in Central America, was bought by Colombia’s banking conglomerate Grupo Aval for $1.9bn. BAC has operations in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Mexico, and has a total of $5.1bn in loan assets and $5.5bn in deposits, according to its previous owner, the finance unit of General Electric. As of the end of 2009, BAC’s operations had combined pre-tax profits of almost $210m, the second largest in Central America, while its $725 Tier 1 capital makes it the third largest banking operation in the region.
