Uruguay has been one of the most advanced in the growth of fintech in the region



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Uruguay ranks ninth among the 18 countries in the regional ranking of financial technology companies. Beyond the number of companies, compared to Brazil for example, the number of platforms has more than doubled in one year.

The report released Wednesday by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Finnovista "Fintech in Latin America 2018: Growth and Consolidation" identified 1,166 companies of financial companies based on technology platforms (fintech) and reflected a 66% growth since the first measure made by both organizations a year ago.

The report revealed that two out of three projects are already in an advanced stage of development and that the activity of fintech has increased from 15 to 18 countries in the last year. According to the trend observed in 2017, Brazil is the country with the largest number of enterprises with 380, followed by Mexico with 273, Colombia with 148, Argentina with 116 and Chile with 84 Uruguay was ranked ninth with 28 platforms, but it had a growth of 133% in quantity and was in sixth place with the highest expansion of fintech in the year.

The document states that if you compare the growth rates of different platforms in the region compared to a year ago, you can group countries according to their increase among those that have experienced a very large increase (over 100%). (more than 50%), average (less than 50%) and those who had a negative performance.

The 1,166 companies identified in the region are spread across 11 sectors of financial technology activity. Among them, three stand out as the most representative. The main one is payments and remittances with 285 platforms and 24% of the total, followed by loans with 208 and 18% and the management of the company's finances with 181 and 15%.

Regulation required

According to the IDB in general, experience has shown that a specific regulatory framework is required for fintech activity. They should include "new mandates and powers for regulators, the creation of new registered and authorized activities within the regulatory perimeter and inter-agency coordination," he said.

To create the report, a survey was conducted among 397 fintech from the region. They were asked about their perception of the regulation of the activity in Latin America and the Caribbean. In the case of Uruguay, 42% of respondents said the regulation was adequate. 26% responded that there was no specific regulation and that it was mandatory; 16% that the regulation is very lax and 11% that it is excessive. The remaining 5% understood that there was no adequate or necessary regulation.

In general, 9% of respondents felt that no specific regulation was currently required, while 35% felt it was necessary and 35% that the current regulation was adequate. This, for the IDB, reflects the progress made in some jurisdictions in terms of regulation.

conclusions

In the last chapter, the study indicated that it was clear that the inevitable digitization of the financial sector opened the door for entrepreneurs to accelerate innovation and change the interactions between the population and its financial services. He noted that many people in the region "are responding to these opportunities by offering new services and innovative business models in all segments and with a special focus on the appropriate service of different customers".

He said that "the relevance of this situation is exacerbated when it is taken into account that these young companies are better adapted to current demographic changes and user behavior, while meeting the expectations of traditional actors in the system. have not yet come up. "

At the local level, at the beginning of last year, was created the House of the fintech of Uruguay, which brings together most of the platforms identified by the report. Among them are Paganza (recently in disagreement with the bank Itaú who decided to no longer work with the application), Inversionate, Socius, Prezzta and TuTasa, among others.

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