The reform to Icetex would be presented in August: it will seek to maintain the reduction in interest rates indefinitely

The president of Icetex also told Infobae Colombia that in search of humanizing the institute, a change of provider was made in its communication channels. @BecerraGabo/Twitter.

The Consumer Price Index closed 2022 at 13.2%, which meant that life in Colombia is more expensive than a year ago and just as eggs, bread, milk, services and almost everything rose, they also increased the educational credit quotas granted by the Colombian Institute of Educational Credit and Technical Studies Abroad (Icetex).

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And although the president of the institute, Mauricio Toro, announced at the end of 2022 that the interest rate would be reduced to 0%, 2% and 3%, with the increase in the CPI, this was not reflected in the receipts of some beneficiaries. from high school.

Given this, Toro has insistently warned that although in practice, in some cases, there was no discount or reduction in receipts, having lowered interest rates to 0%, 2% and 3%, the installments of all credits would have been doubled or tripled. But with inflation and the cost of living skyrocketing, the controversy was served and criticism of Icetex and its president did not wait on social networks.

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To clarify this and talk about the measures that Icetex is implementing so that the beneficiaries of the loans that were affected by the rise in the CPI, Infobae Colombia spoke with Mauricio Toro, who also told what the reform to the institute is about, one of his main bets when assuming the presidency of the entity.

In recent weeks there has been controversy over the increase, in some cases, in the monthly installments paid by Icetex beneficiaries for their educational loans. You said, in an interview, that the calculation was wrong and that the IPC closed much higher than what was projected. Can you explain, in detail, why the increases?

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I want to say one thing: they took me out of context, because when they say that the calculation failed, no calculation failed, that was a personal conviction. Icetex does not make projections or CPI calculations. Icetex applies the IPC that Dane tells him he has to apply. We do not start budgeting according to a CPI calculation, simply because we do not receive budget resources from the Nation and we only have to apply it by law to credits.

If not, in an interview, I personally said that in the month of August the CPI was at 8.70-odd and I, Mauricio Toro, said “look, that’s going to close at around 10, suddenly”, but that It does not affect Icetex, nor does it affect the budget or planning, it was a personal consideration, like that of the entire country and a financial risk at that time.

That it closed at 13.12% is another thing, but absolutely nothing has gone wrong in our calculations; what we did do, which was very proactive, was that, seeing that the CPI was increasing disproportionately in Colombia, I ran out, I had been at Icetex for two weeks, to the Congress of the Republic to look for 350,000 million pesos that are parked today in the National Treasury, which are from accounts of people who have died or of people who have not moved those accounts to lend us that money. That is transparent to the user. The user has his money there, we simply take it as a loan, we pay the interest that the bank offers him, but with that money we allow the highest interest rate reduction, in the 70-year history of Icetex —how are the Icetex credits: to the CPI by law plus interest points ranging between 7, 9 and 12%.

Seeing this growth in the CPI, I got those 350,000 million pesos to be able to lower all our credits from 12, 9, 2 and 3%. Two for those who have judiciously paid their credits in recent months, and three for the general.

However, the CPI, which is the one that went from 5.71 to 13.12, because it generated a very little effect, in the end. People say “but like that”, people said “the higher rate reduction should be directly proportional to the reduction of the receipt” and not necessarily. Had they not done this, the credits would have quadrupled. A person who had a credit of 800,000 would have gone to two million. Today it went to 1,100,000, 1,150,000, but what I want to show is that if I had not done this, the situation would have been completely fatal.

Now, of a million young people who have Icetex, 500,000 pay absolutely nothing, because they have forgivable loans. We have more or less another 450,000, 500,000 left; Of those 500,000, more or less, some 310,000 were benefited from this exercise, which did not increase their credit massively, it remained the same or reduced something. But there are 90,000, 100,000, more or less, who were only paying the CPI. They say “hey, I went from 5 to 13% interest rate, that is, it doubles. 25% grows that CPI and I can not charge less; the CPI does not depend on Icetex, no one else handles it and I have to apply it.

What is being done to ease the toll burden for these people who were affected by the toll increase?

In the Development Plan there are three articles: one is called the rescue plan, to seek, with this enabling, resources to help them and a new one, which we hope to introduce this week, which will allow us to qualify to be able to subsidize CPI points. That is the first step, the legal authorization, then what comes next: get the resource, hopefully the Treasury and the president can help us to be able to subsidize some points during 2023, because that has us worried.

My message is, there were no failures, the exercise of anticipating what was going to happen was carried out perfectly and secondly, solidarity, I know that it is insufficient; we saved 400,000 but we were left with 100,000 left out. It is insufficient, but my commitment is to continue working.

Mauricio, you explained a moment ago that in order to achieve a reduction in interest rates for 2023, you used the money from the accounts abandoned by Colombians, either due to death or because they have not been moved in a long time. These were requested, on loan, with the interest that this entails, from the State. I don’t know, is it covering a hole by opening another?

Not in any way. What do we do: Icetex, since it does not receive money from the nation, works like a bank and in this way puts that money to yield in a portfolio, that is, that we — while that is renting 1% to the nation, what the bank offers that person—we take that money and put it in the financial market at 14, 15, 18% and that return goes to subsidize the rate, which allows us to generate additional income; but we are not taking this, let’s say, to get into debt, a part is taken as a debt at a value, otherwise we would have to go look for it in the financial market at 40%, and another part is used as a mechanism to generate profitability and efficiency.

You have already warned and reiterated that it is a small group of Icetex users who were affected by the increases in fees, for many it is materially impossible to pay them, what is being done to help these people?

When I arrived (at Icetex) there were 87,000 people in arrears and in arrears of more than 31 days, what we did was a day of financial solutions —which we continue to do constantly— to be able to tell young people “come on, I’ll forgive you up to 100% of interest and I help him with a payment plan so that he can catch up. More than 20,000 young people have been updated thanks to this program and more than 13,000 million pesos that we have forgiven, thanks to the fact that I have obtained resources to finally support that forgiveness and help them bring them up to date.

However, of course, there are people who are constantly saying “in the face of this rise in the CPI, well man, it’s getting difficult for me”, what I say to everyone is “call us so we can give you a solution beforehand”. And for those who today have the possibility of making an early payment, we are also working on an article in the development plan to be able to give you a discount on early payment, so that there is an incentive and that way we have fresh resources to help others.

What needs to be said is that these programs are going to continue to help you forgive. So far, the only thing I can forgive is interest.

Finally, one of his bets upon reaching the presidency of the institute is to transform it so that it stops functioning as a bank, looking for a “more humane Icetex”, as he has said. How is this process going? When will the Icetex reform project be filed in Congress?

These six months have been hard work. Sometimes I understand the desperation of the people of when, but we are moving forward. First of all, the new Icetex credits, thanks to a contribution made by the universities in the tax reform, go to 0% plus CPI. Interest is no longer capitalized during the study period, that was very painful for young people.

A young man asked for a loan of 30 million pesos, graduated and when he realized it, he owed 60, 70 million, because during the study period interest was charged on interest. Thanks to this effort by the universities, it is no longer capitalized during the study period, and in this way we are going to 0% plus CPI of interest, something that has never been done in the history of Icetex, and that is humanization.

The universities, some of them selfish, have sued for the article, affecting the rights of young people, and I hope that the Court will help us defend this article, which is social and is a co-responsibility of those universities that live thanks to Icetex resources. But as long as this is in force, that will be a benefit of humanization.

Secondly, without a doubt, being able to streamline our communication channels. Today it is completely difficult to communicate, 40, 50 minutes it takes a person to contact Icetex. We have made a change of provider, starting in April a new provider begins.

In addition to that, what is humanization? The new provider had the obligation to hire young people from Icetex, that is, we told our provider that provides customer service in offices, by phone, by chatbots and others, all the people who work with you, at least 60% have to be young people who are between the sixth and tenth semester, so that they can be linked and we gave additional points to those who were part of the diverse population, people with disabilities, women mothers who are heads of households or families, blacks and indigenous people, in order to demonstrate that our Suppliers also have the obligation to link them, to give them their first job and help them generate an income to avoid decertion due to lack of income, that had never happened.

Third, the reform, we are working full steam ahead. Our purpose is to be able to present it in August of this year, which allows managing the financial model so that young people do not pay more than the CPI plus 3% (interest). Today they pay 9 and 12%.

In 2023, with the money I got, they will be at 2 and 3%, but in 2024 they are back to normal, then. We want this model to allow us to generate income, receive income from the nation to be able to collect a maximum of one CPI plus two, and even less if we succeed, and thus be more efficient and also increase the number of coverage for studies abroad.

Is the goal, then, to maintain this benefit indefinitely?

Today I only have for 2023, the law should enable us to now search for a new financial model, which allows us, with this new financing model, to make it definitive and forever. But apart from that, for us it is important that the fees never exceed 20% of a young person’s income, and that as long as the young person is not studying, he is not charged.

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