Colombia's 4-72 and Bancolombia agree service alliance

Colombia’s postal service 4-72 has sealed a formal alliance with the country’s largest commercial bank, Bancolombia, to expand financial services via post offices across the country. The agreement will mean banking services offered in 185 branches of 4-72 with a roll-out of the services expected in the coming months.

In particular, Bancolombia said the partnership would open access to financial services in many remote regions of Colombia for the first time.

The two organisations have already been working together on a pilot that started last year, in which 42 post offices in 13 cities and municipalities have been offering banking services.

Initially, the network will be expanded to 150 offices, including services like cash deposits and withdrawals as well as credit card services.

Bancolombia said it was working with state-owned 4-72 to help develop a more equitable Colombia with improved quality of life.

It said the services would mean the only contact for people in remote areas with the national and international financial system, particularly in the south of the country and in the Colombian Coffee-Growers Axis area.

Carlos Raul Yepes Jimenez, President of Bancolombia, said: “This alliance with National Postal Services SA will enable us to continue our strategy of financial inclusion, to reach the farthest parts of rural Colombia and support the development that both of these regions need.”

472 president Juan Uribe Ernesto Varga said the alliance with Bancolombia would go “hand in hand” with the new technologies and innovation at Colombia’s postal service.

He said: “We are implementing for many Colombians a new multi-service system and putting them in touch with global trends in a postal market that is focused on the development of the Postal Payment system and the consolidation of strategic alliances with financial institutions.”

One of the largest banks in Latin America, Bancolombia currently has 6.9m customers. Its alliance with 4-72 is seen as a sign of real success for the Colombian postal service, which has bounced back from a period of liquidation just a little over four years ago.

• Click here to read a Post&Parcel interview with 4-72’s president, Juan Uribe Ernesto Varga, on his achievements turning Colombia’s postal service into a profitable organisation, and the opportunities ahead.