Bokanz was born in April of this year in Canning, an urban hub south of Buenos Aires full of towns and closed neighborhoods very close to Ezeiza. The company is dedicated the rental of safes for the safekeeping of money, jewels and other objects of material and sentimental valuein an area “neglected” by the banks.
It is a market as young as it is thriving: There are already 10 companies offering the service, including Hausler (the pioneer in venturing into the business), Lingotto, Fortress of Mar del Plata and Botic of Rosario. Most have plans to open new branches, especially in the AMBA.
Diego Arias, director of Bokanz, points out that the vault has 2,600 boxes, of which 40% already occupied and that “next year we will open two new branches, one in the center and the other in Lomas de Zamora”. The expansion partly has to do with the drastic conversion of the banking sector towards digitization e the closure of physical branches. It is estimated that in the country there are about 900,000 safety deposit boxes distributed among public, private national or international banks.
Business migration is global. It is known as Private safe (private vault, in English) and the pioneer to venture into the business in Argentina was Hausler. Born in 2014, today it has 6 branches (two more under construction and close to opening) e about 15,000 customersaccording to the company’s CEO, Carlos Gesino.
The big challenge, industry agree, is to allay people’s fears about the safety of non-bank savings banks. “Private vaults offer protection against theft, fire and flooding and are safer than bank vaults,” proclaims Juan Piantoni, director of Ingot, a company created in 2019 but which already has 6 branches, one of them in Punta del Este , in Uruguay. .
Piantoni, a former City executive and former co-founder of Hausler, talks about a global trend. “There are more than 2,300 private vaults in the world and in the United States 50% of safety deposit boxes are out of the banking system“, detailed the businessman.
Companies are trying to differentiate themselves from traditional service. Vaults are typically found in commercial or office buildings and shopping malls. They are fully automated, monitored by cameras, motion sensors and accessed via biometrics or iris reading. “The system works like an ATM, without the need to interact with third parties. The customer enters a box and the box arrives at the table”, explains Piantoni.
There are other differences, such as extended hours of service, more flexible contractual terms (15 days, 1, 2, 3, 6 months or yearly), and the possibility of having, in most cases, private rooms. They are also equipped with counters and money verifiers to carry out operations (tickets or deeds). The cost varies depending on the size of the box. An average is around $6,000 a month.
The origin of Bokanz is not accidental. “One of the partners is the owner of La Guardiana, a company that has been manufacturing and supplying safes and vaults to the country’s main banks since 1954,” Arias says. Gesino, by Hausler, anticipates it in 2023 They plan to open between 4 and new branches. “The strategy is to first consolidate in the capital and then expand within the country,” he summarizes.
The surprising fact is that people aren’t just looking to protect money, jewellery, art or financial assets. “People keep items with monetary value as well as sentimental value, such as letters, memories or family photos, for fear of theft, fire or flooding”, says Piantoni. However, the main use is to find a refuge for the “pillow dollar”, an Argentine custom like tango.
The companies of the sector believe that there is still a lot of room to grow, as is the case in other parts of the world. They ensure that it is a service that goes beyond the public ABC1. “We opened in April and have already occupied 40% of the boxes,” says Arias. Gesino underlines that they are favored by the progressive closure of the physical branches of the banks, due to the advancement of digitalisation. “Today there are an estimated 25,000 non-bank savings banks, which speaks volumes to the potential of the business,” says the senior executive.
Source: Clarin
