Economic institutions in capitalist economies are in charge of market regulation. One of the instruments used in some countries to regulate financial markets is the creation of Usury Laws tthat define a maximum rate of interest that any lender can charge to a borrower. This is one of the existing restrictions oninterest rates and although most countries have taken the decision of abolishing this type of control, some countries still use them. Colombia is one of these exceptional cases. This paper proves two things: onthe one hand, the main objective of the usury law, which is to protect the consumers of the banking system, has not been satisfied especially after nominal interest rates decreased due to the reduction ininflation during the last two decades; and on the other hand, the usury interest rate has become a benchmarking used by them. Although this debate has been left behind by authorities, we consider that itis important to bring it back to analyze if authorities should modify it or abolish it. We use an econometric model of panel data to identify the effect of the usury interest rate on loans and the credit interest ratesby type of loanthe banks limiting competition among