Modifications to the Colombian Exchange Regime

The exchange regime in Colombia is made up of the rules and regulations that establish how the exchange of foreign currency is carried out in the country. These policies are outlined to control and monitor the foreign exchange market and maintain economic stability.

In Colombia, the exchange regime has as its highest authority the Bank of the Republic, which is the Central Bank of the Nation, in charge of issuing the provisions and procedures for transactions in foreign currency.

During this year, 2023, the Bank has issued modifications and updates through its bulletins 31, 36 and 37 that have been designed to facilitate and improve the effectiveness in the systematization of its reports and reports on foreign exchange operations.

Faced with these important changes in the exchange system, we share this newsletter detailing the most relevant aspects of the current exchange regulations.

Bulletin 31 of August 08, 2023

Whereby the procedure for the management of the representation of actors in the Exchange Through which the procedure for managing the representation of actors in the Exchange Information System of the Banco de la República was modified, in accordance with the above, all legal representatives of companies with foreign investment or that have a clearing account must be registered. before the System (SIC). Additionally, it is necessary to carry out representation management to link the profile of the natural person with the legal entity and present information in its name.

In the registration of the representation link in the New Exchange Information System, no documents must be attached to prove the representation, except in the case of: (i) a non-resident legal entity; (ii) minors; (iii) non-resident natural person without a valid identification document in Colombia and; (iv) administrators of an estate.

Bulletin 36 of September 12, 2023

In this statement, the External Regulatory Circular DCIP-83 of the Department of International Exchange and Payments (DCIP) was completely replaced; To adjust the procedures and regulatory provisions to the functionalities of the Exchange Information System, among the main aspects we highlight the following:

• The declarations of exchange of credits and investments, as well as the report of movements of compensation accounts must be registered electronically in the Exchange Information System, therefore, Forms No. 3, 4 and 10 are eliminated.

• Replacement of forms 6 and 7 with the “Report of external loans” and the consolidation of the “Report of exceptions to channeling” with the change declaration.

• Multiple debtors and creditors may be related in external credit operations.

• It will be possible to transmit, cancel and correct the exchange declarations and movement report for a canceled account as long as they do not have inconsistencies in the information.

• Account registration may be canceled in the same month of transmission of period information.

• Simplification of the process for unifying the identification of Non-Residents.

• Systematization of the cancellation of movement reports when an account is cancelled.

• The transmission of information may be carried out online or through XML Formats.

Final recommendations to take into account in order to be able to transmit movement information:

1. Establish a user in the Citizen User Authentication System. In this procedure only users of natural persons can be created. The generation of this user is a requirement to be able to enter the Exchange Information System.
2. Choose the services required (international investments and clearing accounts).
3. Sign the service agreement.
4. Create the actors within the Exchange Information System, in case they are not registered as clearing account holders in the Exchange Statistical System.
5. Create users for representation in the Exchange Information System and subsequent interaction with it.
6. Obliged to have a representative: a non-resident legal entity, minors, non-resident natural person without identification document valid in Colombia and administrators of an estate.

Bulletin 37 of September 25, 2023

Modified the implementation date of the compensation account, external debt and exchange declaration modules of the Exchange Information System and will now be November 1, 2023.

In this it was reported that the movement of compensation accounts (Form 10) for September 2023 can be transmitted until October 27, 2023 through the Exchange Statistical System (SEC) and as of November 1, 2023 the report can be transmitted of movements through the Exchange Information System, without it being understood as presented outside the deadline.

The Board of Directors of the Bank of the Republic announced that there will be no service for the transmission of information on October 30 and 31, 2023.

The eighth paragraph was also added to section 9 “TRANSMISSION OF INFORMATION FROM EXCHANGE MARKET INTERMEDIARIES”, of Annex 3 of the External Regulatory Circular DCIP 83, which will read as follows:

“The period between November 1 and December 31, 2023, will be considered stabilization of the Exchange Information System and the systems that the Exchange Market Intermediaries use to transmit exchange information to Banrep. During this period, exchange deadlines and obligations will continue to be enforceable. However, if the Exchange Market Intermediary presents difficulties in the transmission of information due to integration with the Exchange Information System, non-compliance with reporting deadlines or inconsistencies in the information will not constitute an exchange violation.

Keep in mind that the stabilization period applies only to exchange market intermediaries.

[1]  https://www.banrep.gov.co/es/normatividad/boletines-junta-directiva/31-2023

[2]  https://www.banrep.gov.co/es/normatividad/boletines-junta-directiva/37-2023

[3]  https://www.banrep.gov.co/es/normatividad/boletines-junta-directiva/36-2023