Banks in Colombia : How homogeneous are they?

León-Rincón, Carlos Eduardo

Banks in Colombia : How homogeneous are they?

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Borradores de Economía; No. 1022

Date published

2017-10-13

Date

2017-10-13

Authors

León-Rincón, Carlos Eduardo

Document language

eng

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Las opiniones contenidas en el presente documento son responsabilidad exclusiva de los autores y no comprometen al Banco de la República ni a su Junta Directiva.

The opinions contained in this document are the sole responsibility of the author and do not commit Banco de la República or its Board of Directors.

Abstract

In complex systems, homogeneity (i.e. lack of diversity) has been documented as a source of fragility. Likewise, financial sector’s homogeneity has been documented as a contributing factor for systemic risk. We assess homogeneity in the Colombian case by measuring how similar banks are regarding the structure of their overall financial statements, and their lending, investment, and funding portfolios. Distances among banks and an agglomerative clustering method yield the hierarchical structure of the banking system, which exhibits how banks are related to each other based on their financial structure. The Colombian banking sector displays homogeneous features, especially among the largest banks. Results enable to study to what extent the banking sector is homogeneous, and to identify banking firms that have a (n) (un) common financial structure. Yet, as we neither examine Colombian banking system complexity nor banks’ soundness nor higher dimensions of diversity, conclusive inferences about systemic risk and financial stability are pending.