For fintechs, legislation is tough, but necessary

We have the strictest fintech law in the world, although that is part of the foundations and learning of both the authority and the new players in the sector that integrates finance and technology, fintech.

This was announced during the Solutions Laboratory Webinar “Fintech and financial inclusion in Mexico and Latam”, in which Jaime Márquez Poo, Business development and new STP projects, treasury automation by SPEI, Gerry Giacomán Colyer participated, Co-founder-CEO of Clara, Gustavo M. Gameros, CEO of Snowball and Luis Miguel González, Editorial General Director of El Economista, who served as moderator.

To begin, an evaluation was made regarding where fintech are in 2021, before which, Gerry Giacomán highlighted that the panorama is similar in the Latin American region, and explained that part of what is happening is that it is being added great talent for this type of project, in addition to the fact that investors from all over the world are turning to see what is happening.

In reference to what is truly new that the fintech ecosystem is contributing, Jaime Márquez underlined the constant change in security issues, speaking specifically about payment issues; which has also led to constant learning of new technologies to keep users and businesses safe.

On the other hand, Gustavo M. Gameros considered that a change in the style of entrepreneurs is necessary in many sectors, not only in the financial sector, although he clarified that 2021 has taught them – fintech companies – to mature a lot.

He added that at least in collective financing “there are no safer and more professional companies than Mexican ones, just because we have the strictest fintech law in the world.”

2021 leaves us with a much more mature, regulated fintech sector, already with authorized companies that we are finally offering our services with total security of being companies under all the yoke of the law.

Regarding what was the most complicated in the transition from startup to institution, the CEO of Snowball mentioned that it is to go from being a startup to being a financial institution, with all that that implies, such as talking about Prevention of Money Laundering. Money, talk about PLD and automations, among other topics. “It takes away the romantic to undertake,” he said.

On the same subject, Giacomán Colyer affirmed that in Clara’s case, it is a technology company that was born in the midst of the pandemic, before which, her biggest challenge was how to organize as a company, but also how to build the products and solutions that they are creating with flexibility in mind so that companies can operate both in person and distributed throughout the country.

For his part, Márquez Poo outlined part of its process as an institution with a little more than 13 years being an institution regulated by the Bank of Mexico, although he added that part of the process is to learn a new manual, new processes and new controls.

He clarified that in 2021, the topic was digitization, which was driven by the pandemic, which made both digital payment means and new business models grow. “To, like the entire company, I consider myself quite lucky because we saw something, from the least digitized possible (change) overnight.”

Regarding the subject, Gerry Giacomán complemented that what has happened has been to go from analog to digital, and when it becomes digital, it becomes information, “and that is also very interesting for those of us who are here, who work in technology , because it means that this information can be used, new technologies, visualizations, controls, and processes can be created that were not possible before ”, he mentioned.

Another issue was represented by the search for human capital, before which, Gustavo M. affirmed that the reality is that there is plenty of talent, and in the case of Snowball they have the advantage of having many presence in networks, a platform that they also use to recruit talent.

Regarding how they have experienced the growth of human capital in Clara’s case, Giacomán Colyer mentioned that, although they have had rapid growth, it has been on solid foundations made up of his team.

“Something that has helped us is setting ambitious goals as well, and giving a purpose and a sense of mission as to why it is worth joining what Clara does,” he said.

On the same subject, Jaime Márquez stated that the human resources issue is always a challenge, “what we have done is generate internal learning”, “the fact of hiring someone but at the same time, there will not be someone perfect, Because there is no business model, it is a learning issue, no one is going to be perfect for the position, but you can create suitable people for the position ”, he stated.

Another relevant issue was regulation, regarding which the panelists agreed that the legislation is tough, but necessary, also that there are similar needs in the Latin American market, and regarding fines and sanctions, Jaime Márquez clarified that, although the subject is complex, there is also a perfect mathematical formula that calculates penalties.

On the subject, Gerry Giacomán mentioned that the foundations are being made with these fines, with the authority itself, which, rather than generating a review, is reviewing (the fintech companies), so this does not represent anything other than the rules of the play.

We are not banks, we are not credit unions, we are new and the reality is that we are learning so much, how the authority is learning, this is the game that we had to play, he said.

The time for conclusions has arrived and regarding what they expect from 2022, Jaime Márquez mentioned that next year will be very interesting both because of the SPEI payment method, which began to be used in 2021 and will continue to grow next year; as well as the new payment methods, such as CoDi, QR, collection message, codicel and the ability to pay other banking products to credit cards through SPEI, as well as new payment methods from other countries.

For his part, Gerry Giacomán mentioned that “the biggest leap we have seen this year is going from analog to digital”, and the potential that customers see when converting payment into information – who is spending, how much is spending, among other data, what represents a world of possibilities and additional information whose potential will be consolidated in 2022.

Finally, Gustavo M. Gameros affirmed that 2022 will be an important year for Snowball, since they currently surpassed all the objectives they had planned, grew every month and raised capital “as we have never done before”, whose success they hope to consolidate next year. without forgetting that they will operate both in the United States and in Mexico, and with a greater investment capacity. “This year we are funding 20 companies, the next we are going to fund twice as much, at a minimum,” he concluded.