This visionary economist got tired of seeing millions of people excluded from the traditional financial system and decided to leverage his background in risk management to make credit more accessible. Don’t miss this interview and discover the power of innovation in transforming the lives of millions!
Óscar Gutiérrez,“Thanks to Banking as a Service, Bancolombia is part of BioCredit, financing end-consumer purchases.”
CEO and founder of BioCredit and Akaike Credit Risk Solutions.
From consultant to CEO: the journey of a visionary
Óscar Gutiérrez is an economist by profession. He began his career as a junior consultant at a firm specialized in credit risk. After several years gaining in-depth knowledge of the field, he worked as Head of Risk at a major corporation, and then at another… until he concluded that it was necessary to democratize access to credit.
According to our guest, there was a gap in the personal loan market: “People didn’t know how many entities they could request a loan from. They went straight to banks, but in Colombia, there are more than 3,000 cooperatives and 370 Fintechs. We had to connect the dots!” he said with a smile.
BioCredit and Akaike: two sides of the same coin
BioCredit: plug & play credit for everyone
Juanjo showed interest in BioCredit’s proposal. Óscar explained: “It’s a Fintech company that provides technological infrastructure, allowing any entity to offer plug-and-play credit. Imagine a small shop financing phones or appliances without knowing about credit bureaus or electronic signatures. We package the entire process.”
The model operates in two modes. In the first, the store offers direct credit to customers, letting them take the product and pay in installments. In the second, financial institutions like Bancolombia or Banco de Bogotá come into play, as if it were a financial marketplace. They provide the credit to the buyer, while the store focuses solely on selling, without assuming the financial risk.
Akaike: artificial intelligence that anticipates risk
About his second startup, Óscar revealed: “Akaike isn’t a generative AI like ChatGPT. It’s predictive AI that analyzes unstructured data to forecast payment behavior. The goal is for even the smallest cooperative to grant loans with the precision of a bank.”
They train customized models using artificial intelligence techniques, neural networks, and machine learning so that any entity that already grants credit can do so based on artificial intelligence forecasts and unstructured data –“non-traditional data”–, he stated.
The Colombian fintech ecosystem: opportunities and challenges
When asked about the current state of the sector, Óscar painted an optimistic picture: “Colombia is a regional benchmark. We have 370 Fintechs registered with Colombia Fintech and initiatives like the Banco de la República’s instant payment system, inspired by Brazil’s Pix.”
But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. He pointed out two key challenges: First, the relatively slow adoption of Open Banking. “The regulation exists, but there’s a lack of real implementation. Traditional entities are still reluctant to share data,” he said. Second, the fight against illegal lending: “It’s the cancer of informal credit. People borrow from loan sharks who charge abusive rates… and sometimes it ends in tragedy. Fintechs must offer safe alternatives.”
Financial inclusion: credit as a tool for transformation
Juanjo spoke about the importance of closing the personal loan access gap in a country where 30% of the population remains underbanked. Óscar was direct: “In terms of deposits, we’re doing well: wallets like Nequi or Daviplata already have millions of users. The challenge is credit. Many people have no credit history or their data doesn’t meet traditional standards.”
According to him, the solution lies in non-traditional data: “If a business uses BioCredit, we can analyze how many sales they make per month, how recurrent their clients are, or even how they interact on social media. That data is worth more than a classic credit score.”
Open Banking: holy grail or empty promise?
Talking about open banking, Óscar combined hope and skepticism: “In theory, it’s revolutionary –users own their data and decide to share it. In practice, there’s a lack of education. People don’t understand how beneficial it can be to share their information in secure environments.” For him, product-market fit is still a work in progress.
Nonetheless, he sees concrete opportunities for the sector in LatAm: “Imagine one of our clients allows access to their payment history with a hardware store. With that data, a cooperative could offer them a loan to expand their business. That’s real inclusion,” said our guest.
Banking as a Service (BaaS): the invisible engine of finance
The conversation turned to Banking as a Service, a trend that allows any e-commerce, convenience store, or startup to offer loans or installment purchases. Óscar explained with enthusiasm: “Thanks to Banking as a Service, Bancolombia –the country’s top bank– is part of BioCredit, financing end-consumer purchases.”
He didn’t hesitate to highlight that, although the model has challenges, Bancolombia is one of the few taking it seriously. “We talk with institutions every day and work hand in hand. I think there’s now an understanding that Fintechs aren’t competitors or something to be sidelined. We’re here to support them.”
Banking as a Service allows the bank to be the backend of the entire ecosystem –from payments to loans– without the heavy traditional infrastructure. “It’s one of the great innovations that will allow Fintechs and traditional financial entities to converge, and that convergence will benefit the end user,” said Óscar.
💡 Óscar said…
“Even the tomato you pick up at the market can tell a financial story (and help build a credit score)… if you know how to read the data behind it.”
Instant payments: the Bre-B revolution
Things got even more interesting when Juanjo asked Óscar to explain the Bre-B phenomenon, the instant payments system transforming Colombia’s financial industry. “Bre-B is going to change a lot in Colombia. Previously, transfers took days to reach your account,” said the CEO. The result? A heavy, slow system –expensive for end users.
Bre-B breaks with that model: “It allows instant payments, regardless of whether your money is in a bank, cooperative, or fintech,” he explained. “You can request a loan at 10:00 AM, and by 10:01, it’s in your account. By 10:02, you’ve already made your payment.” This system also benefits merchants.
According to the founder of BioCredit and Akaike, the move toward more efficient Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) solutions will enable quicker payments to merchants, helping them reinvest that capital to grow their businesses.
Fintech innovation: AI to anticipate risk
Akaike was launched this year with the mission of bringing artificial intelligence into credit processes. “We want to build a senior credit analyst that knows your entire sales history as a merchant. One that knows who paid on time, who didn’t, detects patterns, and when new customers with similar behaviors show up, it anticipates the risk.”
Akaike’s AI draws from multiple data sources and constantly evolves, allowing institutions to improve overdue loan metrics by up to 25%, based on simulations conducted using synthetic data in recent weeks. “We’re talking about savings worth millions of dollars,” Óscar said.
The future: banks vs. Fintechs or strategic alliances?
To close the interview, Juanjo asked the million-dollar question: Are Fintechs strong allies for traditional banking? Óscar answered: “Without a doubt, we complement each other. Banks offer scale and solidity; we bring agility and innovation. Together, we can reach places that used to be dominated only by loan sharks.”
This entrepreneur’s goal is to make credit more accessible, simple, and fair. It’s not about using AI to replace humans, but to better understand the market. Óscar summed it up brilliantly: “Nobody gets into debt to stash money away—they borrow to achieve something. That’s the key. If we understand why someone wants credit, we’ll also understand how to help them.”
“Working with big banks allows us to get closer to SMEs and the wider population,” Óscar reminded us. Juanjo nodded, noting that the B2B market has less saturation in terms of lenders, which represents a growth opportunity for BioCredit.
The CEO and founder of Akaike and BioCredit is confident that they will become the technological standard for the lending industry, streamlining processes and expanding their customer base and use cases in the coming months. Juanjo thanked him for his generosity in sharing his time and insights with the audience.
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