December 15, 2020 | Charles Newbery
The advance of fintechs over the past few years has forced Latin America’s banks to close branches and invest in digital technology, a transformation sped up by the COVID-19 pandemic as more people bank and pay online.
When Juan Parma talks about banking, it’s almost like he’s running a fintech. Agility, efficiency and customer-friendly technology is the future of banks, says the Mexico City-based head of retail banking and wealth management at HSBC for Latin America.
The advance of fintechs combined with the COVID-19 pandemic has sped up this transformation, much like e-commerce with retail.
In just seven years, Brazil’s Nubank has become one of the world’s largest digital banks with more than 25 million customers. C6 Bank and Neon, also in Brazil, Peru’s InterBank and others are also growing with low-cost products in a market of expensive financial services. The competition is forcing the incumbents to