Best bank: Banco Pichincha
The Ecuadorian economy slowed significantly in 2023 and was largely driven by public-sector spending. The impact of new president Daniel Noboa, who won the November 2023 election, has yet to be seen, but liquidity remains a persistent issue for the dollarized economy. Seeking scale seems to be the best defence against the country’s regular dollar shortages and in this environment the large banks thrive.
AfE 2024
There is no better proof of this than Banco Pichincha’s continued outperformance. The bank closed 2023 with 5.6 million clients – a significant total in the context of the country’s total population of 16.9 million. Despite this dominance there was still room for growth, with the bank growing its client base by 11% during the awards period.
In the past year Pichincha focused – as did many of the retail banks – on digital and continued to deliver on its 2018 digital transformation strategy.