Does Training for Banking Representatives Reduce Barriers to Migrants’ Access to the Financial Sector in Colombia?

In collaboration with IPA Colombia, Oportunidades Sin Fronteras, and Asobancaria, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to assess whether training banking representatives could reduce xenophobia and bias against Venezuelan migrants. The training significantly reduced banking representatives’ negative biases and stereotypes toward Venezuelan migrants—cutting beliefs about poor financial behavior and service priority by over half—while boosting positive attitudes, but it did not enhance knowledge of migration policies or PPT regulations.

Colombia Financial Inclusion

The Challenge

Colombia hosts nearly three million Venezuelan migrants, which is the highest number in Latin America and the Caribbean.¹ More than 2.5 million have registered with Temporary Residence Permits (PPT), the first step towards socioeconomic integration. However, only 26.3 percent of Venezuelans have access to Colombia’s financial sector.² Their inclusion is hindered by several barriers from financial institutions, including a lack of information about regulations for migrants, biases against Venezuelan migrants, and insufficiently tailored customer services. Oportunidades Sin Fronteras, a USAID project aiming at promoting financial inclusion of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia, and Asobancaria, a union of most commercial banks in Colombia, developed a training program for banking representatives of financial institutions seeking to include Venezuelan migrants in their client base.

The Evaluation

In partnership with IPA Colombia, Oportunidades Sin Fronteras, and Asobancaria, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to assess pre-existing biases and whether this training can reduce xenophobia and bias against Venezuelan migrants. The training consists of sessions on awareness and the migratory context, information about the PPT, and commercial and soft skills. The evaluation includes 194 banking representatives from 38 bank branches across 14 cities in Colombia. The banking representatives were randomly assigned to receive the training or serve as the comparison group. Researchers measured indicators including confidence, empathy, implicit and explicit biases, and adoption of the training.

Results

The training led to clear improvements in how banking representatives view Venezuelan migrants. Negative attitudes decreased by 0.33 standard deviations overall, with a 54 percent drop in the belief that migrants have poor financial practices, a 39 percent drop in the view that they should face stricter requirements, and a 51 percent drop in the idea that Colombians should have service priority. Positive perceptions also increased—15 percent more representatives saw migrants as good workers, and rejection of having a migrant as a close relative fell by 71.7 percent. However, the training did not significantly change knowledge about PPT regulations or support for migration-related policies.