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Seeking Digital Shelter During the Storm

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Seeking Digital Shelter During the Storm SEEKING DIGITAL SHELTER DURING THE STORM How YellowPepper’s Real-Time Payment Ecosystem is Increasing Public Trust in Latin American Banking, and Strengthening the Impact of Government Public Health Initiatives -- Despite the COVID-19 Pandemic. By Alan M. Field SEEKING DIGITAL SHELTER DURING THE STORM BY ALAN M. FIELD Not so long ago, the current array of digital payment services offered by Although all these services are marketed leading Latin American banks would under the brand names of one or more have seemed like the stuff of science Latin American financial institutions, fiction: each of them is built on a unique digital infrastructure developed by a Miami, Florida-based firm known as In Peru, account holders at several YellowPepper, which was launched in › banks use their mobile phones to 2004, and acquired by San Francisco- send and receive money between based Visa Inc. at the end of 2020. accounts denominated in Peruvian soles via their cell phone account Currently, YellowPepper’s ‘ecosystem’ numbers; without using either empowers the digital financial services their bank account numbers or of fifty clients in nine Latin American interbank codes. Such transfers countries -- Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, are completed immediately at any Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, time of the day, seven days a week. Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Trinidad & Tobago -- including not only banks, In Brazil, account holders of but also other financial institutions › Banco Bradesco benefit from and retailers. Each month, there are Virtual Card, which generates some five million active users, about a temporary fifteen-digit ‘token’ 73 percent of whom use these services that allows shoppers to enjoy on a recurrent basis. more security during their online purchases. In Costa Rica and Trinidad & › Tobago, smartphone users can YP’s central focus is to build access the Emma app, which its ‘Next Generation Payment analyzes customers’ personal Ecosystem,’ which includes products such as YEPEX, its brand-agnostic finances and enables them to real-time, digital payment platform, make smarter decisions about which helps financial institutions, how to use their money. “retailers, and their customers securely transact, anytime and anywhere. ” YellowPepper’s service is “brand entire supply chain of goods and transferred through real-time payment funds transferred to one’s family; or agnostic,” which means that there services that must operate smoothly p-to-p activities, said Pardiñas. the value of real-time loan acquisitions. are corporate partners -- such as if the restaurant sector is to prosper. “YellowPepper is a way for the banks Mastercard Inc -- with whom Moreover, YellowPepper is starting to connect to all of these new YellowPepper continues to operate EXPANSION IN LATIN AMERICA According to JPMorgan Chase, real-time to transform itself gradually from a technologies,” said Pardiñas. independently; while offering payments offer bank customers this company focused only on Latin America “Not only the ones that are already customized solutions to a wide range There are several compelling reasons unique combination of benefits -- and the Caribbean into a truly global developed today but the ones that of clients and brands in a range of why real-time digital banking services “immediate funds availability, company. Pardiñas noted that YP will be developed in the future. various vertical and horizontal markets, will continue to grow rapidly in settlement finality, instant confirmation, has begun to explore the creation of The world is exploding with new ALAN M. FIELD is a global technology including e-commerce retailers. popularity in Latin America among and integrated information flows—all partnerships with various financial technologies for payments” as well and trade writer, editor, and consultant In Latin America, this includes such the growing segment of middle- and in a payment made in seconds. institutions in the United States, as demand for such new payment based in the Philadelphia area. He has retailers as Unicomer Group, which sell upper-income consumers – and the Bringing together speed, data, Canada, Central Europe, South Africa, technologies from consumers to get reported on-scene about the financial goods through digital channels such as organizations where they shop and communication solves longstanding and the Middle East (such as Egypt, UAE everythin in real-time, he added. and economic impact of various smartphones and personal computers, and work. As Serge Elkiner, CEO and challenges.” and Saudi Arabia). Thus, he noted, it is Nowadays, kids cannot wait two days business-to-business digital innovations thus enabling local shops that sell online co-founder of YellowPepper, explains, unlikely that Brazil -- still expected to for something to be delivered. “It is kind in Latin America, East Asia, Europe, and to benefit from the faster, frictionless “Real-time services involve no waiting Elkiner adds that the popularity of YP's become YP’s largest market in Latin of a perfect storm; a lot of things going the Near East for Newsweek, character of the various services on period for their completion; they are ecosystem is accelerating as more America -- will become YP’s largest on,” not always because of YP, but YP BusinessWeek, Forbes, The Journal of YellowPepper's ecosystem. more secure, and they enable everyone and more potential participants in such market in the world over the long haul. is “at the right place at the right time.” Commerce, Knowledge @wharton, and involved in each transaction to collect digital transactions realize that YP’s other major publications. YP’s central focus is to build its ‘Next accurate, and real-time data about scalable platform provides them with Why is demand for YP’s digital payment Pardiñas added that the lessons that Generation Payment Ecosystem,’ which each financial transaction that was reliable, measurable benefits. "It is very According to Jonathan Scaillon, services expected to keep growing? banks have learned from Latin America Contact: includes products such as YEPEX, long impossible to collect in the past. easy to understand what we are doing," YellowPepper’s Chief Commercial First of all, noted Pardiñas, more are being applied to other regions. its brand-agnostic real-time, digital Even today, most other payments are he notes. "YellowPepper is the company Officer, the company plans to introduce markets are opening for digital payment One critical lesson is that “the moment Alanfi[email protected] payment platform, which helps financial not real-time. Wire transfers of funds that supplies real-time payments. its Emma app to three additional systems. Second, there is a growing list that you can trace the source of funds 610-710-1506. institutions, retailers, and their between bank accounts typically take Bankers know what we do. countries in the Latin of ‘use cases’ (or usage scenarios) that it is super easy to see who is making customers securely transact, anytime one or two days, and international wire American-Caribbean region during 2021. demonstrate the business value of using some illegal activities.” The banks need and anywhere. Moreover, YellowPepper transfers may take a week to complete. They understand this is an By 2022, Brazil is expected to become digital payment systems. “Whereas, revenue to survive, he said. “They love also provides value-added services infrastructure that no single bank an important market for YellowPepper, today we are talking only about p-to-p digital payments because today, about such as tokenization, identity validation, Consider, for example, the potential can do by themselves. And no one is due to the huge size of the potential (peer-to-peer) programs, it is expected 80 percent of transactions are and risk tools to deliver a complete benefits of real-time payment for questioning whether they should or market. But YellowPepper has just that in the next five years, many happening in cash,” especially in Latin transaction and service offering. everyone involved in the financial could do this all by themselves." scratched the surface in Latin America additional large markets are going to America, the Middle East, and Asia. In Peru, for example, 3.7 million people supply chain of an ordinary restaurant -- and elsewhere. “The potential is huge,” use not only p-2-p programs but other As digital payments systems spread currently use YellowPepper-powered and its customers. As a result, the FINDING NEW MARKETS said Scaillon, who predicted that ‘use cases’ such as b-to-m (bank to into new geographical regions and as peer-to-peer (P2P) services. restaurant owner receives his or her BEYOND LATIN AMERICA YellowPepper’s user base could reach as merchant) -- or for paying bank new ‘use cases’ emerge, the banks hope AND THE CARIBBEAN cash immediately, as he would if the many as 47 million people by 2024. accounts directly through your phone, to be able to capture a greater In that country, YP’s Yepex real-time diner paid with cash. Thus, the Hernan Pardiñas, chief operating officer rather than using a card or other percentage of the world’s transactions Despite the pandemic of 2020-1, payment platform, known as PLIN, is restaurant owner is immediately able of YellowPepper, explained that means.” that are still happening in cash. YellowPepper is on track to expand its already powering customers of Banbif, to compensate the suppliers of the YellowPepper’s total addressable market The expectation of the banks is that market reach not just in Latin America, BBVA, Caja Arequipa, Interbank, foodstuffs he used – rather than, (TAM) is expected to grow about ten-fold Thus, an increasing number of scenarios “by bringing these transactions into the but worldwide, in the near and and Scotiabank. perhaps, borrow the funds required -- in the next five years. In the case of will be included in future calculations of electronic world, a big chunk of those mid-term future. and those suppliers are now able to pay YellowPepper, TAM is measured by the YellowPepper’s TAM -- such as real-time (formerly cash) transactions will go their suppliers, and so forth down the total amount of money that is being digital payments for groceries; real-time through them,” said Pardiñas.
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