The challenges facing fintech companies

Over the past three years, the financial technology industry has grown exponentially in the country. New players have joined, digital payment and money management options have multiplied, and there has been an accelerated adoption process from the Coronavirus pandemic. After this jump fintech companies see a moment of consolidation in the local scenarioin a segment that still has a lot of forward projection.

The challenges of the sector, the importance of cooperation between banks, virtual wallets and new players from other sectors entering the world of payments were discussed in the panel “The challenges of fintech companies”, as part of the chapter “The currency revolution. electronics “, a dialogue organized by Clarín that will take place this week and which was attended by Ignacio Carballo, leading consultant of the” Crypto & Alternative Finance “Area of ​​AMI; Fernando Dionisi, Fiserv Director of Global Business Solutions; Martin Heine, Telecom Argentina’s Director of Digital Growth, and Banco Macro’s Director of Commercial Banks, Brian Anthony.

According to a recent Accenture study in 2021 there was a 169% increase in e-commerce purchases among new and infrequent users. Additionally, 85% of consumer interactions with customer service are already done with artificial intelligence. During the cycle, which sees main support from OSDE, Telecom and DESA, as well as sponsorship from Afarte, and support from Naranja X, Fiserv and Payway, the future of this segment in the coming years was discussed.

“The pandemic has changed the way we all buy and pay. There are new players, new wallets, new ecosystem participants. And welcome, because it opens us all to be more competitive, to bring new technologies ”, said Fernando Dionisi. Director of Global Business Solutions at Fiserv. “In our company, which is present in 104 countries around the world, we feed ourselves with the best technologies to bring them, because this allows us to generate new trading processes and people can move away from traditional payments, which now seem old”, he added. he.

In this sense, Martin Heine, Telecom Argentina’s Director of Digital Growth, said: “Virtual money is much cheaper, safer, more traceable and the challenge is to change behaviors, give customers more accessibility, a greater offer of products. and services, to be able to purchase various digital products “.

The company recently he has entered the world of digital payments and launched Personal Pay, a virtual wallet that already has 300,000 users. “Personal Pay was created to make life easier for people. It is a virtual wallet, with a CVU, associated with an international visa, which pays in stores, pays in QR, as if to replace what used to be cash, ”Heine explained.

Faced with this new scenario and with the certainty that the progress of digitization is irreversible, in traditional banks have rethought the business model.

“Today almost all purchases start digitally in some way,” said Brian Anthony, Banco Macro’s Commercial Banking Manager. “During the pandemic we achieved in six months what we had planned for five years and we made available so many tools, that many people who have adopted them have never stopped using them”, recalled the manager and clarified: “We want to offer the best of both worlds. A digital experience adaptable to all customers, a centenary is not the same as a retiree; and leave the branches as an experience center and service center. The challenge is to find a frictionless experience. “

In this scenario it still appears as an unknown how the cryptocurrency segment will eventually develop. “In Argentina we have been witnessing the development of digital payments since 2017. Next was the development of the cryptocurrency vertical, mainly with exchanges that mainly offered the exchange of money, Argentine pesos, for cryptocurrencies. In the post-pandemic we see this approach of exchanges as digital payment institutions, enabling wallet services “, said Ignacio Carballo, who recalled that in the country there are still the experiences of “traditional” financial institutions are lacking.like banks, which offer this type of product to their customers.

In this sense Anthony commented: “We are deepening the question of blockchain, which is a technology that has a lot to offer in banking processes and processes in general. We are investing a lot in this. Cryptocurrencies are currently a low demand in our customers “.

It is a context of high inflation like the current one in Argentina, the need of users is focused on how to make money work better. “The future will go through the customer experience, the way we do it so they have more and more financial knowledge and education so they invest in what they want to invest, the money they give them, they can buy cryptocurrencies, get a loan, but that everything in a simpler way. We aim for this. There is still a long way to go on this path, “assured Heine.