Banesco and OpenWay: Building the Future of Digital Payments in Latin America Together
Banesco SA, one of the largest acquirers and issuers in Panama, aims at becoming a key payment processor in the region. The company expanded its processing services beyond Banesco banks to other payment players and fintechs. Recently, the company successfully updated its technological stack for payments migrating to Way4.
Banesco Panamá attended our recent OpenWay Club event where we gathered the best payment experts from around the world. We had an opportunity to sit down and talk with Marlene Fernández, Executive Vice President of Technology, and Jaime Martínez, Business EVP. Together, we discussed the most popular payment services in Latin America, major trends shaping the market, Banesco Panama's experience using the Way4 digital banking platform, and its plans for the future.
Banesco Panama - focus on digital payment ecosystems
Jaime Martínez: Banesco Panama today has the largest number of POS in the market and is a third largest issuer. For us a very important goal is sustaining market growth. We believe that in the coming years we are going to focus a lot on digital, on completing payment ecosystems both for individuals and businesses, which is where we believe we still have some things to cover. The target is to ensure that any payment made in Panama goes through us. That is our vision and without a doubt, it has much to do with digitalization.
API-fication, marketplaces, and digital wallets build up the payments in Latin America
Jaime Martínez: In coming years, the development of open banking and partnerships with fintechs will undoubtedly be very important. I believe this a way to achieve synergy. We are also going to see a greater demand for issuing products, especially prepaid cards, and credit cards. Another important business is e-commerce — due to COVID-19 this market has grownsignificantly. I think we are focusing more on everything connected to payment and e-commerce tools such as payment links on the one hand, and on the other, looking into the wallet space. We believe that the wallet, a marketplace to manage many transactions on a single device, is the key to building greater loyalty and improving the customer experience.
Marlene Fernández: Technology is changing, and it will basically focus on building an end-to-end digital journey for a customer from the moment a service is requested until it is finally provided. And the client doesn’t have to be tech-savvy. That is the most important requirement. In recent years, the pandemic has helped us to accelerate digitally, and customers no longer want to go physically to banks, they do not even want to go to the supermarkets. So what is needed right now is knowing the customers, and understanding deeply what they need and how they want to get it. Technology should be their helper.
And if you ask me about technologies that we should be working on in the next 3 to 5 years, I would say that this is everything that exists in the world of APIfication, everything that helps you to connect. With fintechs, we can take advantage of modern technology, integrating it quickly and offering them to clients. So pay attention to everything in the world of APIs and open banking. This will be coming in the next few years and establish connections between banks and, in our case, with fintechs.
Way4 – a digital payment platform for growth
Marlene Fernández: The Way4 platform is a robust, stable, scalable platform. You can have it on-premise or in the cloud — the system is cloud-agnostic. This helps you optimize costs. And the bottom line, which is the most important for me, is that you can have the entire payment ecosystem APIfied. This helps grow various business areas so you can provide multiple services, whether they are virtual or physical.
We chose Way4 after doing a fairly exhaustive evaluation. We even made comparisons with thesolutions at thetop of the market, and we asked for references, from Gartnerfor example, and in all the evaluations itcame out atthe top. We not only did the theoretical evaluation, but also went and contacted clients, visited clients, understood how they worked with the platform,how much time was needed forimplementation, and that was what helped us with the selection.
Life during the COVID-19 pandemic
Marlene Fernández: The pandemic has helped us organize ourselves in a better way on the labor level and establish new online services. For example, we had to serve customers who were used to physically going to a branch and who no longer had that option. This was the first change. The second change was that our employees could no longer go to the office, so we had to provide them with all the technology they needed for remote work. And the third change was that our teams had to work more professionally. Being in the office with your coworkers next to you is different from organizing your agenda at home, where it’s harder to guarantee that you can attend to all the issues during the day. On a professional level, its all about efficiency. We had to ensure that all people would perform the same whether they are at home or in the office. That has been our focus during the pandemic.
The personal challenge was that no one imagined what it would be like to be locked up with your family for so long. When you go to take the children to school, then go to work, while your spouse goes to another job and then you all see each other at night, it is not the same as having to share the whole day, organize the whole day, each one working or studying in the same place. You are in the same place – day and night, and if you did not organize yourself, there comes a time when you can collapse.
So, personally, it was a challenge to establish an agenda where I could define the points of time when I could write down “I came to work” and “I left work”. The hardest thing about working at home is leaving work because you are there, and then it’s easy to stay working until late at night. The pandemic forced us to work remotely, to work from home, and it was a challenge for everyone. It was a challenge for the family and it was a challenge, of course, for me.
Jaime Martínez: Without a doubt, one of the greatest challenges we had was how to start or how to continue doing business from home, right? Normally, person-to-person, or face-to-face treatment is essential to be able to develop a relationship with a client. That was without a doubt one of the greatest challenges we had, which led us to make various strategies on how to become close with each of our clients. Another important thing is that, from the bank side, we had to have all the systems prepared to support delivery companies. We had some services available for the couriers in Panama to ensure that they met expectations. Without a doubt, this led us to growth. I think it was an opportunity to develop a series of products. Obviously, behind it came the whole initiative from e-commerce and onboarding businesses to give them this payment service through a payment link. And in that way, well, it was an initiativethat we can say was positive.
On a personal level, I think that neither of us, especially in Panama, expected to be in lockdown in our homes. I think Panama is one of the countries where we felt the most isolated. But I think that it was a good experience, since there are times when we are too busy to spend time with our families except for the weekend, and I think the lockdown gave us an opportunity to have that time with the family, with the children.
I think it is very positive, without a doubt, to return to the offices because it was necessary – to help concentrate on work, be more productive, be closer to our co-workers, be able to sit at the whiteboard to plan. On a screen, it appears it is not so easy.
Impressions of OpenWay Club
Marlene Fernández: I agree with what Jaime commented about being able to see people to make relationships. Meeting the OpenWay team in person is different from videoconferencing. That way they can better understand the sensitivity of the business and how we want to grow. It’s a great chance to discuss with OpenWay ways they can help us, how they can contribute, because nowadays we really have that support, but videoconferences are never, ever the same as face-to-face. A true partnership can becreated in person. And this applies not only to this conference, which has been quite good for us, but it applies to all relationships, including with colleagues. Being virtual all the time is not the same as being able to physically meet other companies, meet with other people who also have the same products and to exchange experiences. It is fascinating. So, really, we are happy with this event and, well, thank you very much for the invitation because the truth is, it was productive.
Jaime Martínez: I think there are several very positive outcomes. One of the most important has to do with the presentations that we saw here, to be able to compare the strategy that we have for growth in the coming years to other players, and to see whether it is in line with market trends. I believe that this is essential. With what we saw today, we are on the right path. This is a very positive experience.
Another important moment is meeting with colleagues from other countries who are doing something similar. I believe that this exchange of good practices is important – there are experiences had by us or others that are worth listening to. The exchange of ideas is very positive for continued growth or, possibly, in the course of time, to do business together.
The other point, I think, was reuniting with the OpenWay team, which was essential. The distances are very long, and face-to-face helps to sit down and talk about issues in much greater detail. And I think that's very positive, I think the team was very open to any concerns we had. I really want to congratulate them, because we received a very good impression of the team, and also of the event. I think that, without a doubt, this helps to strengthen our the relationship a lot, because it is the best way to take advantage of services and, in this way, that we can grow together.