According to GSMA, mobile money based international remittances is the fastest growing product by transaction volume (+52%) for the second year in the row in Latin America.
A study from Juniper Research has found that international remittances, including airtime top-ups via mobile phones, will exceed USD 25 billion by 2018, up 67% from an estimated USD 15 billion in 2015.
Remittances received from Latin America reached 65 million in 2014 (BID) as the regulatory environment is becoming friendlier for investments and new business.
In fact, Mexico is the recipient of one-third of total remittances received from Latin America. Recently, the Mexican Government launched a National Policy on Financial Inclusion and a National Digital Strategy program which included a call for the country to use technological innovation for financial inclusion and reduce the use of cash.
According to the World Bank, only 51% of the population has a bank account in Latin America.
The unbanked segment stimulated by a friendly policy for digital money and financial inclusion especially in some countries like Mexico, Colombia or Peru, promise renewed opportunities for small and/or dynamic companies and startups to open up for new alliances and partnerships.
One example is Mimoni the “largest online short-term consumer lender” for the unbanked in Latin America.
The product created a scalable statistics- and technology-centric process that can instantly and accurately predict credit risk for the 60% of the Latin American population. Mimonis ability to instantly provide very small loan amounts for a short time disrupts the existing multi-billion-dollar short-term loan providers for the unbanked.
Another example is Mobilelender Bank, a mobile platform able to offer financial services through a smartphone, offering products such as micro-loans and even launching shortly banking and debit accounts.
Gabriel Manjarrez, CEO, MiMoni and Rodrigo Cobos, Co-Founder and CEO, Mobilender will present their innovations at M2Banking & Fintech Latam 2016.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now