AFRICA, BRAZIL AND MEXICO, September 20, 2022 - Leading companies including Mastercard, Mercado Pago, Rappi, Uber, Visa, and many others, attended the sixth edition of the Latin America Summit. The event, held by EBANX, a global payments fintech founded in Brazil, wrapped up with a series of major news announcements that will boost financial inclusion not only in Latin America, but also in Africa. This year’s summit took place for the first time in Mexico City and brought together leaders from top global companies for two days of in-depth discussions on key trends in payments, digital commerce, gaming, and the creator economy.
During the event, EBANX announced the expansion of its payment operations and solutions to three countries in Africa: Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. According to a report issued in June 2022 by Endeavor, Africa has a $115 billion digital economy, due to a combination of a young, digitally savvy population and greater digital penetration. In addition, startups have sprung up in the region in the last three years that are digitizing small and medium-sized business operations in Africa – from accounting, to marketing, payroll, and sales teams.
"Africa and LatAm have similarities but also very interesting differences. In LatAm, digital commerce was the driving force behind digital payments’ adoption. In 2021, 59 percent of Latin Americans had already made a digital payment to buy something online. In Africa, it is the reverse. Digital payments are fueling the growth of digital commerce. Today, nearly half (46%) of the region's population already has access to a digital payment system, while only a small fraction (12%) have ever made a purchase online. But, this is just the beginning. The region is now at the forefront of mobile money and has very high mobile-phone penetration rates," said João Del Valle, co-founder and CEO of EBANX.
To further expand the reach of digital payments in emerging economies, EBANX has just launched three new products to address different market needs. The first is a high-value payments solution targeted at global and regional companies looking to sell cloud, ERP, IT services, and SaaS subscriptions in Latin America. The new product enables customers to automate payments from US$10,000 (up to specific regulatory limits and controls of EBANX's partner financial institutions), while being fully compliant with regulations and ensuring all necessary controls to prevent any financial losses.
The second new offering is micropayments, a product aimed at meeting a growing demand in the creator economy to provide small-value payments on a daily basis to influencers and content creators. Finally, EBANX also presented its new single transaction solution that lets consumers buy multiple products from local and international sellers on online marketplaces and make a single payment, instead of having to make different transactions.
An in-depth look at the present and future of payments in emerging markets
In this edition, the 2022 summit's agenda brought specialists from big global companies, who provided data and insights on topics such as digital and financial inclusion and what we can expect in terms of innovation in the payments industry, including: George Gordon, head of Latin America at Uber, Pedro Rivas, general director of Mercado Pago in Mexico, and Alejandro Solís, general director of Rappi in Mexico and Costa Rica, who took the stage to share the journey of these companies, leaders in their sectors, and how the payments strategy is a key element for business growth and recurrence.
Kiki Del Valle, VP of Market Development at Mastercard for Latin America and the Caribbean, and Fernando Pantaleão, VP of Merchant Sales & Acquiring at Visa in Brazil, talked about the opportunities in emerging markets such as Africa and Latin America, which have high-growth rates and increased digital penetration; standing out compared to other regions. According to these companies, one of the biggest challenges faced by the payments industry in these markets is the development of the infrastructure needed to expand people's access to digital platforms for financial services.
Another much-anticipated panel brought together Carlos Eduardo Brandt, deputy head of Competition and Financial Market Structure at Brazil's Central Bank, Emilio González, managing director of Nu Mexico, and Gabriel Santos, president of Colombia Fintech, the country's fintech association. The three shared their perspectives on how the financial system can promote the financial inclusion of millions of Latin Americans, through solutions and services designed to meet people's needs in a simple and transparent way, such as Pix, the instant payment system launched by Brazil's Central Bank, by using technology to improve financial services offerings across the region. According to them, developing and improving the infrastructure will be crucial to increasing trust in these digital financial services and reducing operational costs.
The LatAm Summit also welcomed on the main stage Derin Adebayo, global leader of access to capital at Endeavor, and Anthony Oduu, co-founder and CEO of fintech VertoFX, to talk about the fast growth of the digital and mobile market in Africa and the huge business potential for global companies in the region that is now considered "the next frontier" when it comes to digital commerce and payments and where some digital commerce verticals are growing five times faster than the world average, according to data from Newzoo.
New in this sixth edition of the Latin America Summit, the interactive sessions brought dynamism and diversity of content to the event. In this format, representatives from companies such as Microsoft, Meta, Canva, Ualá, Nequi, Yape, Klap, Kueski, and Bitso, in addition to FinteChile, Chile's fintech association, talked to a select audience about the revolution of instant payments in Latin America, the role of alternative payment methods in digital and financial inclusion in the region, and payments 3.0, among other issues.
"It was a pleasure to share this space with such remarkable people from the ecosystem and to hear their ideas about innovation and how to offer the best solutions to promote financial and digital inclusion in emerging economies. This makes our mission of creating access a reality," said Paula Bellizia, President of Global Payments at EBANX.
To learn more about EBANX and the topics that were discussed during the Latin America Summit '22, please visit: https://www.latinamericasummit.com
ABOUT EBANX
EBANX is the leading payments platform connecting global companies with customers from the fastest growing digital markets in the world. The company was founded in 2012 in Brazil with the mission of giving people access to buy in international digital commerce. With powerful proprietary technology and infrastructure, combined with in-depth knowledge of the markets where it operates, EBANX enables global businesses to connect with hundreds of payment methods in different countries in Latin America and Africa. EBANX goes beyond payments, increasing sales and fostering seamless purchase experiences for businesses and clients. For more information, please visit: https://business.ebanx.com/en/