This paper examines the determinants of the high intermediation spread observed in the Colombian banking sector for over two decades. A reduced-form equation is estimated on the basis of a bank profit maximization model that permits a decomposition into operational costs, financial taxation,...

This study analyzes foreign investment in Colombia’s financial system, chronicling major changes in legislation, describing how investment flows evolved over time, and comparing performance of foreign–owned versus domestic banks. Panel data estimations reveal that financial liberalization in...

We develop a stylized balance sheet framework to help identify 'quasi-fiscal' components of central bank crisis interventions and show how sources of fiscal risk are created from both the new claims and how they are funded. Combining central bank balance sheet data with survey evidence from...

After 25 years, the Colombian authorities decided to abandon the crawling peg exchange rate policy and implement a regime of nominal exchange rate bands. Initial conditions in Colombia contrast sharply with those of other cases in which bands were part of an ongoing effort to reduce high...