Few Colombians used the web to conduct financial transactions despite Colombia being a leader in Latin America in terms of Internet access and use of social networks, Colombian newspaper El Tiempo reported Monday.
According to a study conducted by Havas Digital, of the 20 million Colombians with access to the Internet, only 22% or 4.3 million people make use of online banking facilities. This figure is still greater than the Latin American average of 10%.
In contrast, Chile is the regional leader of online banking with 35% of Chileans with Internet access using the web to access their bank accounts.
According to Federico Urdaneta, director of MPG, there are two reasons for the low levels of e-banking utilization. The first is the low rates of banking in the country, and the second is a lack of trust in the facility. The study took into account five Colombian banks: Bancolombia, Banco de Bogota, BBVA, BCS, and Davivienda.
According to the study, respondents were most influenced by bank websites when choosing where to deposit their savings.
At the end of the second semester of 2011, 5.5 million Internet inscriptions were registered in the country of which 4.1 million or 75% were broadband connections.