The fintech industry in Argentina lives its moment of splendor.
With more than 130 companies, a growth of 110% and transactions of US $ 6,000 million last year, this sector -alone known to many as 100% digital banks-, is preparing to continue on this upward path during 2019 .
One of the reasons for this exponential recovery has to do with the fertile ground that this activity has to flourish: only 48% of Argentines are banked. In other words, one in two people are potential customers who could join their portfolios.
But there is more, of those that are, a large majority (70%) do not use financial services frequently, reveal sources in the sector. That is, they collect their salary in an account, but they quickly extract their funds and do not even have a credit card.
Given this scenario, it is not surprising that international companies set their sights on the country and take advantage of the "fintech boom". And one of them is nothing less than a regional "heavyweight" who, after his resounding success in Brazil, finalizes details for his landing in Argentina.
Your arrival will be a real "bomb" for the sector, since it will display an aggressive proposal that will make the crack grow between traditional and digital banks. Although the players of both sides speak of "complementarity", the truth is that it will be a fierce competition.
In just a few days, as iProUP was able to confirm, a giant will start operating, whose growth in the neighboring country already allows us to anticipate that it will become the next unicorn in Latin America. That is to say, its market value will exceed US $ 1 billion. And of course, it will be one of the most powerful fintech in Argentina.
It goes all over
The strategy for the disembarkation in the country was planned meticulously. Nothing was left to chance.
Thus, Nubank, the largest digital bank outside of Asia, promises to "kick" the local fintech board. According to iProUP, Rafael Soto, until recently CTO of Wenance (Chieff Tecnology Officer), will be in charge of commanding it.
For now, silence is part of the company's plan: the order that came from San Pablo is not to talk to the press yet. Meanwhile, from the Argentina Chamber Fintech indicated to this medium that they have not maintained "any formal contact".
iProUP contacted Kaszek Ventures, the most important fund in Latin America, created by former Free Market Hernán Kazah and Nicolás Szekasy. Not only do they have Nubank in their portfolio, but Szekasy is also a board member of the fintech.
"No comments, the only thing we can say is no comments", they remarked at the insistence of iProUP, within the framework of the impulse they will give to the arrival of Nubank to Argentina.
The sources consulted believe that they will follow the strategy of expansion that they have already deployed with NotCo, the Chilean food company that produces food cloned with "artificial intelligence" and that will also arrive with its products to the Jumbo gondolas in these lands.
As for Nubank, it will have the support of China's Tencent - the fifth largest technology company in the world, ahead of Facebook - which paid a whopping US $ 180 million to keep a part of Nubank.
This investment, the first of the Asian holding company in Latin America, boosted Nubank's market valuation to US $ 4 billion. And part of its plan to extend its tentacles in the region to the growth of several technology startups.
Given the silence of the protagonists, the sources consulted point out that, indeed, Soto is no longer part of the team of Wenance, one of the local fintech with the highest growth and product portfolio, which even ventured into the European market.
For now, Nubank is putting in order their roles to operate in the country. As a sample, it already registered the Internet domain nubank.com.ar on January 29, with the corporate name "SA Nu Pagamentos" (similar to the one used in Brazil) and the Identification Code (CDI) number 50-87442707- 9 This set of figures is a kind of CUIT for foreigners, necessary to register the web address in Nic.ar.
Although, like all technology-based financiers, will compete against traditional banks, it is expected that the strongest blow will be given directly to the Fintech world.
"A loan like the one provided by the fintech Afluenta has a very high financial cost, over 105%, against 80% a year from Banco Nación, and in many cases under the pretext of financial inclusion they 'kill' you with the rate", A banker points to iProUP. That is why the arrival of Nubank will make more competitive not only the digital banking but also the traditional one.
If you take what happened in Brazil as a reference, it took very few years to climb the "top 6" as a credit card issuer, surpassing historical entities. How did he do it? kicked the board coming out to offer with its "purple card" rates lower than those in force in the market.
The success has been total: there is even a waiting list to be a customer of the digital bank. With an aggressive bet, the Mastercard of Nubank provides greenamarelhas land with funding that starts at 2.5% per month, which led the main entities in Brazil to have to reduce the cost of borrowed money.
But there is more, to employees who have only a few days idle money in their accounts, they pay a fee, something similar to what Wilobank or Mercado Pago in Argentina did.
Fierce competition
In addition to Nubank, this year other digital banks will arrive, while the existing ones will be consolidated. In this competition framework, the "traditional" began to offer advantages to avoid the flight of customers to new players.
Among the online, the strongest launch will be that of Openbank, of Santander, which in Spain already has one million customers. As iProUP would say, the operation will be in the hands of Federico Procaccini, former CEO of Google Argentina. It is expected to make its debut in June.
"Openbank is part of the digital transformation process that Santander is going through, it will offer a simpler daily life, optimize internal processes and improve the customer experience", they indicate from the company to iProUP.
It will offer a savings account, credit cards, loans and investments, among other services, which will be launched in a phased manner as the Openbank is rolled out.
Another one who uses the details for his debut is Rebanking, from Grupo Transatlántica, which will be done with American Express, which will also make its foray into the fintech segment.
"Rebanking is thought of as a 'product company' that offers the right service to the needs of each person," explains Stefano Angeli, CEO of the digital entity, to iProUP.
It proposes to provide benefits based on the behavior of the client, thanks to a tool that combines public information with the incidence of its financial behavior.
Naranja is another one that will bet heavily on the segment: it entered the digital community with products and services -properties and third parties- to consolidate collection tools and alliances aimed at facilitating daily life.
"We are not going to stop being Orange because we are incorporating a much more digital layer, we have to rely on our DNA, which is the people", says Gustavo Fazzio, director of Financial Services at Naranja, at iProUP.
Today, it has just over 1.1 million active digital users per month. It also offers the Orange App, a payment button for ecommerce sites and Naranja Pos, for stores and professionals to accept credit cards.
On the side of the players who are already on the court appears Wilobank, led by Eduardo Eurnekian, of Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 and Corporación América and Guillermo Francos, former director of Bapro. It already has 26,000 customers and expects to finish 2019 with 150,000.
"We saw a very large space of inclusion, which not only has to do with new generations such as millennials, but also with those who do not find the right answer in banking," Francos told iProUP.
In this way, it offers to the unbanked loans, credit cards and accounts in pesos and dollars, among other products, in addition to the possibility of entering to operate on the Internet at any time.
Another one that is already operating is Brubank, by Juan Bruchou, former president of Citi, who also proposes a 100% digital and mobile platform. It offers those interested a savings account -in pesos and dollars-, fixed term, personal loan and the possibility of making transfers to any traditional bank.
But if there is something you want to differentiate yourself from, it is the good experience of your users that, after all, will be what decides the success of your business plan. Thus, it is launched to the market together with a Visa contactless card. In addition, it allows to "quantify" the purchases made with debit.
The traditional banks are also deploying their arsenal so as not to lose ground before the fintech. And they will continue to do so, even more so with the arrival of Nubank.
One of them is Galicia: its Move product already has 120,000 users. It offers the loyalty program Quiero! that allows you to accumulate points through card purchases.
ICBC also says present in the race. To this end, it has enhanced its ICBC Club benefits program, which was recently unified with ICBC Store, its ecommerce portal, for the purchase of products and the exchange of points among more than 20,000 items.
For its part, Itaú launched its "Abrí tu cuenta" web platform, a comprehensive solution at a regional level that allows the opening of an account 100% digitally from any mobile device in five minutes.
In this way, you only have to complete personal information, upload a selfie and the photo of the DNI. Then, the entity proposes up to four sets of products according to the profile of each client.
Among the public, Banco Nación is in the process of expanding through the installation of different Business Units to increase geographic coverage, promote financial development, facilitate access to those who turn to traditional branches and increase the institutional presence in urban centers with technological dependencies.
As for the miles programs, Aerolineas Argentinas relaunched its AR Plus plan, replacing the exclusivity agreement it had with Galicia, to also join those of the Macro, Mortgage, Nation, Province and Credicoop cards.
Latam was not left behind either: he joined BBVA Banco Francés to add the points of his loyalty program that promises greater benefits in air tickets.
Nubank continues to develop its strategy in silence, but promises to make a lot of noise in the fintech field in the coming days before strong competition from local digital banks to consolidate in the market. For many, what is now the calm that precedes the storm.
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