The Superintendence of Finance of Colombia issued External Circular 015 of 2020, whereby instructions related to the treatment of subsidy resources drawn by the State through Credit Institutions or Specialised Electronic Deposit Societies (SEDPES) within the framework of the Solidarity Income Programme are detailed.

It should be noted that the supervised institutions should not charge beneficiaries of the Solidarity Income Programme any commission or fee for the withdrawal or disposal of transfers, as this is considered an illegal practice. Should this prohibition not be complied with, the entities controlled by the Superintendence of Finance shall be subject to administrative sanctions provided under article 208 of the Financial System Organic Statute. In addition to sanctions, offending entities shall proceed with the money reimbursement process that shall be made under the conditions defined in this circular letter.

It should be noted that the resources of the transfers from the Solidarity Income program are unseizable and cannot be used to pay any type of obligation of the beneficiary to the financial institution through which the unconditional money transfer is dispersed. In this case, if the financial entities do not comply with this prohibition, it shall entail the administrative sanctions established in the same article mentioned in the Organic Statute of the Financial System, without prejudice to the process of reimbursing the money.

It is also worth highlighting that it is considered an abusive practice for the supervised entity to debit values that disperse the payment, originated by any concept, that reduces the amount of the money transfer made by the National Government to the beneficiaries of the Solidarity Income Program.

Finally, in any of the above cases, the entity must return the discounted value to the beneficiary, at the latest within the following working day, using the same means by which the payment was dispersed, and without any claim being required for this purpose.

EXTERNAL CIRCULAR15 OF2020