Colombia

Awards of Excellence
Latin American regional awards

Citi has spent the past year expanding its coverage of the consumer market. Citi Colombia increased its geographical reach by 60% when it opened nine new branches. Perhaps more important in the long term, though, will be the alliance with technology provider GTECH, which provides 3,200 service points across the country at which customers can make cash deposits and payments. This drive to win more customers is proving successful, with the bank increasing customer assets 69% ($410 million) to grab a total market share of 9%. Citi is catching up with its rivals in the consumer market, some of which have had a difficult start to the year: market leader Bancolombia’s net income for the first quarter of 2007 decreased by 6.6% year on year. The bank takes this year’s award for its overall abilities: matching strong consumer growth with capital markets expertise. The most notable deals in the latter category were its co-structuring of a $480 million facility for Cementos Argos that was guaranteed by the firm’s subsidiaries in order to improve pricing, and its handling of the government mandate to value Colombia Telecomunicaciones, a public telephone operator.