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Brazil Imposes Stricter FinTech Rules

Published on march 11, 2022

The Central Bank of Brazil unveiled stricter regulations for FinTech firms Friday (March 11), imposing regulations based on the size and complexity of these companies and creating tougher standards for required capital. Reuters reports the new rules will begin taking effect in January 2023 and are due to be fully implemented by January 2025. The […]

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How Millennial, Gen Z Consumers Are Shaping Latin America’s Digital-First Banking Future

Published on march 9, 2022

More than half of young Brazilian consumers are now neobank customers, and legacy FIs are rethinking how to engage with this key demographic. Banco do Brasil’s Neudson Freitas explains why the local banks are turning to “super apps” and open finance to win them over.

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Blockstream CSO: $500M Committed to El Salvador Bitcoin Bond

Published on february 18, 2022

Investors have committed a half-billion dollars to El Salvador’s forthcoming bitcoin bond, according to Blockstream Chief Strategy Officer Samson Mow. Mow, who developed the novel bond, told industry news site BeInCrypto that “the bond had received more than $500 million in verbal commitments at the time he stopped counting a few weeks back.” The 10-year, […]

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US Senators Propose Legislation to Mitigate Risks of El Salvador’s Bitcoin Adoption

Published on february 17, 2022

A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate Tuesday (Feb. 15) to diminish risks to the nation’s financial system by El Salvador’s adoption of bitcoin as legal tender. The Accountability for Cryptocurrency in El Salvador (ACES) Act was introduced by Sen. James Risch of Idaho, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s ranking member, […]

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Spain’s BBVA Backs Brazil’s Digital Bank Neon Payments With $300M

Published on february 14, 2022

Spain’s BBVA bank upped its stake in digital bank Neon with a $300 million (€263 million) investment, giving the legacy financial institution an additional 21.7% interest in the Brazilian startup, according to a press release on Monday (Feb. 14). BBVA anticipates the new deal will close before the end of February. BBVA has held a […]

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Weeks Before Bitcoin Bond Launch, Fitch Slashes El Salvador’s Credit Rating

Published on february 11, 2022

Weeks before El Salvador is planning to launch a $1 billion bond issue, Fitch Ratings slashed its credit default rating from an already dismal B- to CCC. Along with a slew of specific financial worries — among them a worsening debt-to-GDP ratio, a still-high deficit, and an $800 million bond payment due next January — […]

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eCommerce in Latin America Showing Hypergrowth

Published on february 11, 2022

Interest in digital services such as video streaming is on the rise among Latin American consumers as online shopping quickly gains in popularity in the region. A recent study from global payments solutions provider EBANX predicted eCommerce sales in Latin America not only would rise 37% year-over-year from 2020 to 2021, but also maintain a […]

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Mexico Unicorn Clip on Mobile Wallets and the Digital-First Consumer

Published on february 10, 2022

Latin America’s online banking and payment ecosystem has expanded rapidly since the start of the pandemic, especially within Mexico, where rising rates of smartphone and internet penetration have pushed the adoption of digital wallets and related tools up. While a high portion of the country’s consumers remains unbanked and thus reliant on cash to make […]

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PYMNTS Intelligence: Why Seamless Payments Are Key for Digital Streaming Growth in Latin America

Published on february 7, 2022

Smartphones and the internet have steadily become more ubiquitous in Latin America over the past two years, helping more of the region’s consumers utilize digital channels to shop, pay and consume media. Latin American shoppers who tried online channels for the first time during the pandemic do not appear to be abandoning them now that brick-and-mortar […]

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Today in Crypto: La Haus Sells Colombian House for Bitcoin; JPMorgan’s Asset Management Chief Decries Crypto, NFTs

Published on february 6, 2022

Michael Cembalest, J.P. Morgan Asset Management chairman of market and investment strategy, said bitcoin’s valuations are “the stuff that dreams are made of” — and he didn’t mean it as a compliment, CoinDesk reported Friday (Feb. 4). “I won’t be buying it even though part of me wants to, regardless of consequences, since that’s what […]

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