Experts analyze the future of digital financial technologies

The Fintech ecosystem in Latin America has had unparalleled growth thanks to the opportunity offered by being one of the regions where more than 70% of people were not banked before 2020. Under this scenario, Medellín, the capital of innovation, opens its doors to different actors from the financial sector, who will meet on September 27 in the fourth version of the Latin America Fintech Market 2022, to talk and debate about the trends, challenges, technologies and projections of the different segments of the sector such as open banking, digital credit, e-commerce, cryptocurrencies, among others.

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Among the more than 850 attendees and 18 national and international speakers invited to this event, Mariano Sokal and Santiago Etchegoyen, two Argentine founders of uFlow, company that developed a 100% cloud and No-code credit decision engine, which allows any fintech, retail bank or financial institution to improve its operation when making changes to credit rules or models. The executives assured that the capital of Antioquia will be a ‘hub’ for the future of the sector’s technologies.

“What we can see is that Colombia, compared to other Latin American markets, started a little later. However, the development of technologies in this country has had an overwhelming growth and this is due in part to two factors: the first is that a more collaborative and fraternity space was built among entrepreneurs; but also, it is due to the energy and desire that people put into each project”assured Etchegoyen, Chief Technology Officer of uFlow.

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To this is added Mariano Sokal, Managing Director of the company, saying that the evolution and growth of both Colombian fintechs and those of other countries such as Mexico, Brazil or Argentina, is due to the fact that the regulatory framework has been advancing in favor of development of this industry. In this way, We can already find laws around open banking, crowdfunding, digital loans and even, in some regions, the issue of cryptocurrencies is already beginning to be worked on.”

The progress of this type of startups on the continent has been so overwhelming that a recent study prepared by the Ibero-American Development Bank together with Finnovista found that with 2,482 financial technology platforms, Latin America represents 23% of fintechs worldwide. Furthermore, within this ecosystem, the countries that lead the march are Brazil, where 31% of this type of company is located, Mexico (21%), Colombia (11%) and Argentina (11%).

Likewise, he highlighted that the most frequent users of digital services are: electronic wallets and mobile payments (42%), followed by payment gateways and aggregators (33%), points of sale (9%); platforms for sending remittances and international transfers (7%).

However, Sokal points out that although there has been great progress in this sector in recent years, the challenges are still many and some of them are being able to develop technologies focused on handling large volumes of data in varied and dynamic scenarios; to carry out risk calculation and portfolio analysis processes in real time and to be able to continue aligning the relationship between the different financial actors, to optimize banking products.

“In that sense, the technologies that will be behind these digital tools will be fundamental for advancing to the new financial era. Some that are going to be a trend from now and in the next five years are the Cloud, Serverless, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, among others”added the uFlow manager.

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On the other hand, Argentine businessmen recognized that for several years Medellín has been recognized as one of the most innovative cities in the world, compared to the same level as New York and Tel Aviv, without neglecting the fact that entrepreneurship centers such as Ruta N, thanks to which in 2018, the venture generated 1,931 jobs and attracted 62 organizations, mainly due to interest in the city’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

“The new entrepreneurs feel that the city is a place where these businesses can flourish, in addition to being a space where an ecosystem of technological entrepreneurship has been consolidated for more than two decades, which grows thanks to the ingenuity of the new entrepreneurs, but also to the synergy between public and private institutions, the academy and the unions, the accelerators and the international companies that take it as a strategic point of operation”, Sokal says.

For his part, Etchegoyen stressed that it is of great value for companies from all over the region to be able to meet in the capital of Antioquia, which, he highlights, is a ‘hub’ of technological innovation and in this case of the financial sector. Therefore, “For us, the relationship and the steps that can be taken in 2023 for the development of new technologies will be vital.”

For this edition of Latin America Fintech Market 2022 It will also have more than 15 commercial stands, six conferences and four panels, and will even have a networking space known as the Fintech Cocktail Party. In this way, Medellín will once again be the great stage to connect entrepreneurs, technology companies, investors, banks, government and other entities that are related to or interested in improving the financial sector.