The Superintendency of Banks of Colombia issued the External Circular No. 14 of March 21, 1997, which modified the regulations regarding representative offices of foreign financial institutions and foreign reinsurance companies. The main aspects of the new Circular are :
- the obligatory nature of representative offices governmental regulation is clarified;
- the list of exceptions from the obligation of establishing a representative office in Colombia is unified.
The Circular also states that representative offices may only develop activities tending to allocate external credit in Colombia.
It is authorized the opening of marketing offices of foreign financial institutions that will depend on the representative office already authorized by the Superintendency of Banks. Such marketing offices may be established within the country in places different from that of the domicile of the representative office.
