When a company or a person in Colombia takes out a loan from a foreign bank, a non-resident supplier, a parent company, or any creditor abroad—or grants a loan to a non-resident—it will, in most cases, qualify as foreign indebtedness (external debt) for foreign exchange purposes. At that point, a simple but crucial rule applies: the external debt must be properly reported/registered before disbursement. If the funds enter Colombia (or are paid abroad on behalf of the debtor) without complying with this prior requirement, the transaction may be subject to inquiries and potential sanctions for foreign exchange non-compliance.
Within this framework, external debt (i.e., loans between residents and non-residents, whether or not involving a foreign exchange intermediary—IMC) is subject to a key rule: the loan must be reported before disbursement. The regulation is explicit, even for holders of compensation accounts: the External Credit Report Granted to Residents must be submitted prior to disbursement. This is not merely a “formality”: if obligations to register, report, transmit, or disclose information are fulfilled after the legal deadline, the sanctioning regime provides for penalties due to late compliance.
The rationale behind this requirement is that the Central Bank (Banco de la República) needs the loan to exist “within the system” from the outset: who is lending, who is borrowing, the amount, term, conditions, and, most importantly, the loan identification number, which allows foreign currency flows (disbursements, interest, principal repayments, commissions) to be properly tracked and identified. In practice, this is handled through an IMC (your bank or another authorized financial intermediary), which processes the reporting of the loan and enables an orderly management of the flows.
It is also important to understand the broader regulatory context: not every international transaction can be structured freely. For example, certain transactions (such as payments for imports or exports) are treated as foreign exchange operations that must be mandatorily channeled through the foreign exchange market. This requirement is established in External Resolution No. 1 of 2018 (Articles 41 and 69, among others), and compliance entails filing a foreign exchange declaration. Additionally, there are special regimes or treatments applicable to certain sectors or entities, where the regulation imposes further restrictions or requirements (for instance, in some cases, access to the foreign exchange market is limited to specific conditions). This reinforces a key idea: foreign currency and cross-border payments operate under a defined regulatory framework.
Once the loan has been properly reported and is “active,” the process becomes more operational: every movement related to the loan—disbursement, interest payments, principal amortization, commissions—must be channeled through the foreign exchange market (via an IMC or, where applicable, a compensation account), using the appropriate foreign exchange code and linking it to the loan identification number. This consistency is what prevents issues during internal reviews, audits, or regulatory inquiries.
A point that often creates confusion is that, in some cases, the disbursement does not physically enter Colombia because the creditor pays directly abroad (for example, to a supplier). Even in such scenarios, from a foreign exchange perspective, this does not mean that the reporting requirement can be bypassed. On the contrary, it remains essential to ensure that the loan is properly reported and that all applicable reporting and supporting obligations are fulfilled. What matters is not only the path of the funds, but that the external obligation and its related flows are properly declared.
It is also important to bear in mind that if the loan is later renegotiated (in terms of maturity, interest rate, amount, or change of creditor/debtor), it should not be left “frozen.” Such changes must generally be updated in the external debt information. Many compliance issues do not arise from the loan itself, but from the fact that the loan terms changed in practice and were never properly reflected in the reports.
Consider the following example: a person living abroad (a non-resident) tells you, “I will lend you USD 20,000 so that you can purchase furniture in Colombia.” Although this may seem like a private arrangement between individuals, from a foreign exchange standpoint it constitutes an external loan granted to a resident. What does this imply? Under the rules developed by External Resolution No. 1 of 2018 and DCIP-83, the loan must be reported to the Central Bank through an IMC (a bank or authorized financial institution), and, most importantly, this must be done before disbursement to avoid exposure to penalties. Subsequently, when the funds are received (or when payment is made directly abroad to a supplier, if an exception applies), the transaction must follow the proper “ritual”: channeling the funds and filing the foreign exchange declaration with the minimum required information and the loan identification number, or complying with reporting obligations within the specific timeframes applicable to disbursements made abroad (for example, DCIP-83 provides that, in certain cases, the debtor must submit minimum information within 15 business days after the disbursement abroad).
In summary, borrowing from abroad to use the funds in Colombia is generally permissible, but it is an expressly regulated matter. If handled correctly from the outset (prior reporting/registration + proper channeling and supporting documentation), it helps avoid the most common risk: the transaction falling “off the radar” and resulting in inquiries and sanctions due to missing or late reporting.