Fintech are everywhere and today any application can be one of them. That is the balance made by Andrés Fontao, CEO of Finnosummit and founder of Finovista, about the moment that the financial technology ecosystem lives in Mexico.
“We have gone from an incipient stage, to one where it is an established, consolidated, sophisticated, mature sector, I would dare to say that the Fintech have a chair at the table in the financial services sector,” he says.
Claudia Núñez Sañudo, general director of the Fintech Mexico Association, also coincides with this, since seven years after the approval of the Fintech law, the ecosystem is consolidated. “The number of new companies is only growing at 4%, while Fintechs are generating a 31%income growth, that tells us about an important consolidation in the market.”
Not only that, more than 70 million people use Fintech services in the country and it is projected that, by 2027, this figure reaches 86 million users, according to the report “The evolution of digital financial services in Mexico 2025”, of the same association.
This consolidation that Claudia and Andrés speak has not only been reflected in startups, but also in the historical actors of the banking that are leveraging in new technological capabilities to evolve their own business. And today both, Fintech and Banca, work more and more hand.
According to Fontao, on the one hand the Fintech realize a deep knowledge gap of how the financial services industry works, while, on the other, banks need to digitize themselves and understand the changes in the consumption habits of people and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) now, but also of future generations.
“These people under 25, who are bankrupt or in the process of banking, their expectation when hiring a financial product, a savings account, a card, a loan, is that the experience looks more like Uber, spotify, Tiktok, Instagram, and not to the traditional way of making banking: go to a branch, make a row, be a row, be a row, be a row, to be a row, be a row, be a row. row, get effective money from the cashier. “
Why do Fintech want to be banks?
The Fintech are taking a step in their evolution by looking more and more to become a bank, giving way to what is glimpsed as a new financial system. Fontao explains that one of the main reasons is to be competitive, although the way of banking has changed doors out; That is, in face with the client, it has not passed the same of doors inwards, since there are still the same regulatory requirements.
“The ability to introduce collection products, payments, investment, savings, is limited by regulation. That obstacle is all face and what they do is: o I request a license because I have capital and time to do so, or I look and buy one because I have the capital, but not the patience of waiting for a process of three or four years,” says Andrés Fontao.
Some of the great players of the ecosystem are Mercado Pago and NU, who initiated the bank license process several years ago. Pedro Rivas, general director of Mercado Pago in Mexico, explains that the interest in obtaining it goes in several orbits: the legislation that governs banks changes the capacity and solidity that the investments they are making can give them; And the ecosystem is changing and now, with the current regulation, they find limitations.
“It is a natural progression towards all the players who begin to have a certain size. I would not recommend a small player to go for a license, in the same way that we do not see that it is the best scenario to be a very large player with millions of users and not be within the bank license. We are in an intermediate one, we can continue to operate as we operate, we continue to grow even though we are not yet a bank,” says Rivas.
In the case of the Brazilian NU, who arrived in Mexico six years ago and today has 12 million clients, in October 2023 they formally requested the bank license and in April this year they received approval. Until now, there is no confirmed date to begin operations as a bank.
“Our proposal is to be a bank to be able to give our customers a much more comprehensive offer of products. And the first product we want to launch as a payroll. Why? Because we know there is still a lot to improve in this product. It is the product that generates the greatest main maintenance between customers and banks,” says Romina Benvenuti, director of legal matters of compliance and public of NU Mexico.
And the figures do not lie, because according to the National Survey of Financial Inclusion (ENIF) 2024, for 45% of the population, the first capture product was a payroll account.
While there are already others that operate as a bank, such is the case of Ulá, who opted for the path of acquiring a bank, ABC Capital, seeing the time that the processes for the bank license were taken.
Andrés Rodríguez Ledermann, General Director of Uualá Mexico, points out that during the two years that have been banking, one of the challenges they face is the regulatory requirement, but it confesses that the return that is much Rodríguez.
What moved them to look for the license was the subject of customer safety as a primary attribute, to have a value proposition that is competitive with traditional banking and prepare for the future. “We imagine that this is a marathon, it is a long career, there will be a large process of digitalization of financial services in Mexico, we are only seeing the beginning,” says the manager.
In addition, it emphasizes that there is no limitation at the product level because it is bank. “That false dichotomy that had been very regulated for some years ago took away the ability to be creative with the product, today it does not exist. Regulators have been very good to evolve, in understanding the new market perspectives, the new demand of customers on the products and today it can be done practically everything digitally from an app,” says Rodriguez.
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However, Claudia Núñez makes an important clarification: having a bank license does not mean stop being Fintech. “When you deliver your savings to a bank, that bank can give someone else the money that you gave and generate performance on that. Many of the figures that today have the Fintech do not allow that. That generates a limitation in the business model that is important to solve and how to do it is with the bank license,” he explains.
And it points to that, although many will follow the path of looking for the bank license, the ecosystem is also very fragmented, so there will be Fintech that will never want to become banks.
Capture (and retain) clients
This new game is called digital finances and has brought other players who were not born as Fintech, such as Oxxo and Walmart, who have not resisted to want to monopolize a part of this juicy market.
“Spin, Rappi, Uber, Mercado Libre, Walmart, they start with an advantage: they have the ecosystem built and access to millions and millions of customers and data to customize the savings offer, credit, investment payment, insurance, what you want. When we talk about any company can be a Fintech, what we are talking about is that the finances are taking place within the platforms and digital ecosystems. Explain Fontao.
All specialists consulted for this work agree that the arrival of new players brings benefits for customers and competition, although new financial solutions will not eradicate the problem of inclusion from one day to another.
Some of the main challenges, specialists and players coincide, are access to mobile and internet technologies in the country, the use of cash, financial education and user retention and growth.
“It is no longer uptake, but it is retention. Reach operational efficiency and profitability. What does it sound like? To an established company. You ask the CFO of a bank and tell you that those are its strategic priorities. What a coincidence that the Fintech are already looking like banks. That demonstrates the consolidation and maturity that the sector is living,” adds Fontao.
For Fontao, the strategy that Fintech must follow for retention is to sophisticate their supply of products and services, since the differentiation in the price is no longer enough because everyone can access the same capital cost and offer the same savings rates.
Fontao refers to the NU strategy of launching as a monoproduct company and then improving it and gaining scale in customers, and then introduced new products to resemble a bank and adds that this path is the same for the acquisition.
“You do not pretend to be all for all the day one because that way you will not win credibility or you will have focus to win customer scale. The scale will come focusing on a single problem, resolve it, customers will trust you, you will win their loyalty and then you can already climb with others,” says Fontao.
For its part, Claudia Núñez emphasizes that the construction of a brand near the client is the key, as well as continuing to bet on hyperpesonization.
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The cash is the present, but the future is digital
On the other hand, Pedro Rivas, from Mercado Pago, says that the use of cash is rooted at all socio -economic levels. “You have to accompany these users, you have to give reasons to change the use of cash towards the use of digital money. You have to explain why you should start digitizing your savings, starting to generate profits, because with that information that begins to generate around the use of user money, we can start understanding it better and to give it a credit or offer you a simpler service,” he says.
From April to August 2024, 94% of adults reported having made at least some purchase in an online establishment or platform using cash. While for transactions of 500 pesos or less, 85% of people reported to use it more frequently and for purchases of more than 500 pesos, it was 73%, according to ENIF 2024.
“Being able to offer lower entry barriers so that people digitter their money and transactions is everyone’s job, it will not be able to do only one entity or a digital bank, it is the work of the entire financial system,” says the director of Uualá, and adds that the space to operate is still large.
All agree that the digitalization will not stop and will continue to open opportunities and not precisely in the lowest strata of the socioeconomic pyramid, but to higher segments through the Wealth Tech (investment and heritage management). While credit for people and for small and medium enterprises is a segment that will continue to grow and accommodate.
All suggest that the future of the Fintech will continue to be dynamic and that it will be marked mainly by the use of artificial intelligence and hyperpersonalization, but also a sustained tendency of startups to seek the bank license. “The future of banking is another, not one of branches and cashiers,” says Fontao.
