Roundup: Davivienda's Daviplata, Banco Finandina, Citibank unit's bonds

Davivienda's bank penetration program Daviplata has grown to reach 416,000 users since it started operating in April, with some 3,000 new users entering the program per day, Colombia's third largest bank said in a press release. The initiative has proved to be successful in adding new people to the banking system, as according to the press release about 71% of Daviplata's users had no bank account before, while 55% had never used a financial service. *** Colombian lender Banco Finandina has sold 71.9bn pesos (US$40mn) worth of bonds, higher than the 60.0bn pesos the bank had originally planned to sell, it said in a filing with local financial services regulator Superfinanciera. The bonds were tied to the IBR banking reference and are part of a larger, 400bn-peso bond program, of which 100bn pesos has already been placed. Prior to its entry into the local banking system, Finandina operated for 34 years as a finance company focused mainly on the auto segment. World Bank private sector arm IFC holds a minority stake in the company. *** Fitch has affirmed its AAA national scale rating on the senior and subordinated bonds issued by Citi's (NYSE: C) Colombian subsidiary. Citibank Colombia recently announced it plans to increase the size of the program by 50% to 1.5tn pesos and to extend the maturity of the bonds by three years. Proceeds from the issue will be used to fund future growth and to keep healthy operating levels, the agency said in a report. To read the full report, in Spanish, go to this link