Colombia fintechs criticize proposed crowdfunding rules
Colombia's fintech industry chamber said planned new regulations governing crowdfunding platforms would hinder the development of the segment.
The chamber, known as Colombia Fintech and founded in 2016, has published a manifesto detailing the impact of the draft new rules - drawn up by the finance ministry's financial regulation unit - if they are approved unchanged.
The manifesto was drafted by 10 of Colombia Fintech's 60 members - among them crowdfunding platforms Alfuenta, Kuanto and Ideame - and its legal partners.
Colombia Fintech, for example, says authorities have not proposed separate rules for equity crowdfunding and loan crowdfunding platforms - and that these are needed. It also claims the draft regulations would make it difficult for platforms to become officially monitored entities and that the regulations would tend to isolate Colombia's crowdfunding market.
Alternative finance is a growing sector in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).
In LAC, alternative finance markets grew 209% to US$342mn in 2016, according to the 2017 Americas Alternative Finance Industry Study, conducted by the universities of Cambridge and Chicago. Marketplace/P2P business lending remained the largest alternative finance market segment with US$189mn registered in 2016, an increase of 239% over 2015.
Last year the Inter-American Development Bank said the growth of fintechs presents challenges for regulators but that new rules should promote competition and innovation.
In January, Argentina's securities watchdog CNV introduced rules which state that crowdfunding platforms must be formally established as public limited companies. The country's central bank has said it is not planning - at least during the administration of President Mauricio Macri - to regulate fintechs that offer money-lending services to the public.
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