Brazil’s Itau Has Sold Its Colombian Retail Bank. 267,000 Customers Woke Up Somewhere Else.

Rio Times · Colombia

One of Brazil’s biggest banks has walked away from retail banking in Colombia. About 267,000 people woke up this weekend with their savings accounts, mortgages and credit cards belonging to a different institution – and for most of them the only visible change was the logo in the app.

Bogotá. Itaú’s Colombian retail customers moved to Banco de Bogotá over the weekend. (Photo internet reproduction)

Banco Itaú Colombia, part of the Chilean arm of Brazil’s Itaú group, has finished selling its personal banking business in the country. The new home for those retail clients is Banco de Bogotá, a subsidiary of Grupo Aval, the country’s largest financial conglomerate.

The transaction legally closed on July 31, 2026 and the technical migration ran from that afternoon until midnight on August 1. From August 2 customers began seeing their accounts inside Banco de Bogotá’s digital channels.

What exactly changed hands

This was not the purchase of an entire bank. It was a partial transfer – known legally as a cesión de activos, pasivos y contratos – of the retail or “persona natural” unit from Banco Itaú Colombia and Banco Itaú Panamá.

The package included individual savings and deposit accounts, consumer loans, mortgage loans and related credit-card contracts. Business with companies, treasury operations and certain subsidiaries stayed with Itaú.

Banco de Bogotá S.A. took over the assets and clients in Colombia, while its Panamanian sister entity Banco de Bogotá Panamá handled the smaller cross-border book. Both are part of Grupo Aval, which analysts describe as the largest financial group in Colombia.

How many customers moved

The Rio Times reported in July that about 267,000 personal banking clients would migrate in August. Itaú’s own completion statement uses exactly that number – “approximately 267,000 customers” across Colombia and Panama.

Some local media rounded the figure to 270,000, but the official tally of around 267,000 is unchanged.

What Itau Unibanco Banco Holding does. Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A. provides various financial products and services to personal and corporate customers in Brazil and internationally. It operates through three segments: Retail Business, Wholesale Business and Activities with the Market + Corporation. The company offers current accounts; funds management; payments and collections; loans; credit and debit cards; investment and…

Loans and deposits: the final numbers

The earlier Rio Times story, based on figures available when the deal was announced in December 2025, cited COP 6.5 trillion in consumer and mortgage loans and COP 4.1 trillion in deposits. Itaú’s closing release updates those amounts.

The final loan portfolio that moved to Banco de Bogotá was nearly COP 6.45 trillion. At the exchange rate of 3,151 Colombian pesos to one dollar, that is roughly USD 2.05 billion.

The deposit book settled at about COP 4.80 trillion, equivalent to around USD 1.52 billion. The difference between the two sets of numbers simply reflects the change from preliminary estimates in late 2025 to final book values at the end of July 2026.

How the switchover was scheduled

Banco de Bogotá said the transfer would begin at 5:00 p.m. on Friday 31 July and run until midnight on Saturday 1 August, with customers able to see their products in its app and web banking from Sunday 2 August. Itaú Colombia closed its branch and telephone service for personal customers on 31 July.

What Itaú keeps in Colombia

After the sale, Itaú remains in Colombia but with a much narrower focus. Its operations now sit entirely inside a unit called Itaú Corporate, which handles banking and treasury services solely for companies and institutions. It also continues to run two specialised subsidiaries: Itaú Comisionista de Bolsa, a securities brokerage, and Itaú Fiduciaria, a trust and fiduciary business. In Panama, Itaú Panamá stays active exclusively for corporate clients. No “persona natural” retail products remain with the group in either country.

Regulatory approval

Colombia’s financial watchdog, the Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia (Superfinanciera), authorised the transfer in June 2026 through Resolution No. 0892.

That approval was the last major condition before the July 31 closing.

Price tag of the deal

Itaú put the final price at about COP 1.64 trillion (US$520 million), calculated on the book value of the assets and liabilities transferred and still subject to the usual contractual adjustments. Selling at book value means no windfall: the bank booked an extraordinary after-tax cost of roughly COP 561.7 billion (US$178 million), mostly restructuring charges and the unwinding of hedges, of which COP 505 billion was taken by the end of July. The pay-off it is aiming for is structural – the transfer cuts about COP 3.8 trillion (US$1.21 billion) from its risk-weighted assets, freeing capital for corporate lending.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who bought Itaú’s Colombian retail business?

Banco de Bogotá, a subsidiary of Grupo Aval, Colombia’s largest financial conglomerate. Banco de Bogotá Panamá took the smaller cross-border portfolio.

How many customers were affected?

About 267,000 personal banking clients across Colombia and Panama, according to Itaú’s completion statement. The Rio Times reported the same figure in July, before the migration.

Is Itaú leaving Colombia altogether?

No. This was a sale of the retail, or individual-customer, business.

Itaú kept its corporate banking, treasury operations and certain subsidiaries in the country.

Sources: Grupo Aval, Itaú Colombia, Rio Times – the July report on the migration

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