Banco Davivienda Honduras, S.A.

What it is

Banco Davivienda Honduras began life in 2000 as the merged successor to two old Honduran savings institutions, and became Davivienda in 2012 when its Colombian parent bought the local HSBC franchise; today it offers retail, private, corporate, and electronic-payments banking.

Honduras represents about 3.7% of the total assets of Davivienda Group, making it the smallest of the five country operations but still a solidly profitable part of a growing regional empire.

Who owns it

Banco Davivienda S.A. — Colombia’s second-largest bank by assets — is itself owned by Grupo Empresarial Bolívar, a Bogotá-based holding with more than 80 years of experience in insurance, banking, and construction. In 2023, the parent created Holding Davivienda Internacional, based in Panama, to structurally unite and manage its Central American subsidiaries — Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Honduras — under one roof.

The IFC, the World Bank’s private-sector arm, completed a USD 150 million investment to acquire a 7.09% stake in Holding Davivienda Internacional S.A., reinforcing the capital base of the group’s Central American operations. The remainder of the Honduran entity’s shares are held indirectly by Davivienda Group through that Panama holding; a 2025 reorganisation consolidated 98.9% of Davivienda’s banking capital under the new holding structure.

Who runs it

Gustavo Raudales heads the Honduras country operation, reporting into the group’s Central American regional structure. Javier Suárez Esparragoza serves as President of Davivienda and of Davivienda Group; Jorge Rojas Dumit is CEO of the holding company that sits above the bank.

Not published: the names of the local Junta Directiva chair and CFO for Banco Davivienda Honduras, S.A. are not disclosed in the CNBS-filed 2024 audited financial statements, the company’s Honduras governance page (davivienda.com.hn), or the KPMG audit opinion. Honduras’s CNBS Resolution GRD No. 638/03-10-2022 on corporate governance requires supervised institutions to maintain a board manual but does not mandate publication of individual director names in the public annual financial statements.

The money, in plain words

In 2024, the bank earned L 6.86 billion (≈ USD 256.7 m) in total financial income — interest, commissions, and service fees — a rise of 24.2% from L 5.52 billion the year before (our calculation). After paying interest to depositors, running the branches, setting aside money for bad loans, and paying tax, it kept L 588.8 million (≈ USD 22.0 m) as net profit — a net profit margin of 8.6%, reasonable for a mid-sized Central American commercial bank (our calculation).

For every lempira of equity its parent has put in, the bank earned about 10.5 cents — a return on equity of 10.5%, a moderate but acceptable rate in the Honduran market context (our calculation). The Honduras operation sits inside Holding Davivienda Internacional, and its balance sheet grew to L 60.0 billion in total assets (≈ USD 2.25 billion) at year-end — a 13% rise from L 53.1 billion in 2023 (our calculation).

Net profit fell 14.3% year-on-year as loan-loss provisions rose sharply, from L 785.7 m to L 1.01 billion — a signal the bank is building defences against potential credit stress (our calculation from audited statements).

What it is doing now

In January 2025, Scotiabank and Davivienda announced a deal through which Scotiabank would take a 20% stake in Davivienda Group, with Davivienda absorbing Scotiabank’s operations in Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica — all subject to regulatory approvals. By November 2025, the Colombian financial regulator had given final approval, completing a sweep of clearances already received in Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, and El Salvador.

Under the resulting structure, Davivienda Group controls the combined operation while Scotiabank holds 20%; together the new group reaches over 29 million clients with assets above USD 60 billion — roughly 37% larger than Davivienda alone. For the Honduras subsidiary specifically, the deal tightens the chain of ownership and raises the group’s strategic and financial ambition for the region.

What to watch

• Loan quality. Provisions against bad loans jumped 29% in 2024; watch whether the non-performing loan ratio stabilises or rises further as Honduras’s economy faces remittance and commodity headwinds.
• Capital injection pace. The parent pumped L 865 million of fresh equity into the Honduras bank in 2024; further capital calls — or their absence — will signal how the group allocates resources across its five markets.
• Strategic weight. Honduras is 3.7% of group assets — small enough to be managed tightly for returns, large enough to benefit from the group’s new scale and Scotiabank’s global relationships.
• IFC partnership. The World Bank’s private-sector arm now holds 7.09% of the Central American holding; this adds ESG expectations and green-finance obligations that will flow down to the Honduran operation.
• Deposit cost. Interest paid on deposits nearly doubled in 2024, from L 1.66 billion to L 2.73 billion; if rates stay elevated, margin pressure will persist.

This is news, not investment advice.