Serving a significant market
With trillions of dollars flowing through Latin American banks every week, the opportunities in the region are seemingly limitless.
“There’s tons of value to be created here,” Abdel-Nour says. “Just the addressable market here, we think, is incredibly large, and the opportunity is very, very large.”
In recent years, digital payments and noncash payments overall have seen a rapid rise in Latin America. show that, from 2021 to 2023 alone, the proportion of transactions conducted through debit cards, credit cards or mobile wallets has more than doubled. This rise is a key stepping stone for the uptake of other innovations like open banking.
Prometeo Open Banking poised to pop
Abdel-Nour’s firm has invested in an emerging company that aggregates useful financial data across Latin America’s banking system to solve and automate access through a single API. The unique model helps clients and receive or initiate account-to-account payments.
“We think that angle is very, very interesting, and there are very few others that are really trying to aggregate the banking system in the way that they are,” Abdel-Nour says.
“What’s interesting about Latin America and specifically Spanish-speaking Latin America is there are a lot of these regional banks that operate across those countries, but the solution to operate cross-border doesn’t really exist in any way today. So I think the combination of that prize, as well as the fact that there are very few people tackling it, is really exciting.”
Setting the new “standard” in open banking
Standard Chartered Bank is over 170 years old, but Cruz could not be more optimistic about the multinational bank’s future — especially in Latin America, which she says is primed for innovation.
“We need to be ready for that because it’s moving very fast,” says Cruz, who works out of Brazil.
She notes that open banking now provides so much insight into the risks and opportunities of each client’s bank accounts — as well as broader market trends — that her team can use the information to provide world-class customer service.
“We need to know exactly what the client needs,” Cruz says. “This information is crucial for us.”
The recent fintech boom has also enabled Standard to evolve from being a global facilitator of transactions to a close, long-term partner of its clients, Cruz says. “Open banking is finally providing that for us. … Providing information to our team so they can think ahead [and] offering products that make sense to the client.”