Business

Nubank, Mercado Pago and Google together to accelerate financial digitization in Brazil

Association brings together fintechs and neobanks to take the debate about the Brazilian financial system beyond traditional banks

François Martins, director of Government Relations at Mercado Pago. Photo: Mercado Libre/Courtesy

LABS

10.Mar.2021 16:38 BRT
UPDATED 16:48 BRT

Nubank and Mercado Pago, two large Latin American fintechs, joined Google and announced on Wednesday the founding of Zetta, an association focused on digitizing the financial sector. Other major tech and innovation companies also joined the initiative: Creditas, Banco Inter, Grupo Movile, Hash, and iugu.

The association’s goal is to strengthen the debate on the financial sector’s agendas beyond the big banks and promote inclusion through the technology of thousands of Brazilians without access to traditional financial institutions, an audience for which fintechs, neobanks, and traditional banks are increasingly competing.

Zetta will act as a forum to debate the modernization of the Brazilian financial sector and to seek solutions for digital inclusion and fostering entrepreneurship through digitization and reducing the costs of financial services.

“Our goal is to empower millions of Brazilians to have access to digital financial services or to be able to start and keep their businesses running with the help of technology,” says François Martins, director of Government Relations at Mercado Pago.

Study shows a positive impact of technology on economic recovery

Zetta also launched its first study on the role of technology in the economic recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study sheds light on how Brazilians behaved during this period from indicators such as, for example, what they searched for on the internet, the dynamics of loans and installment purchases, and the demand for credit cards in neobanks.

The survey shows that the number of customers using a credit card increased 29% from February to November 2020, and users from all income brackets began to make more installments purchases on the credit card. Online loans have also increased by 57%.

The Brazilian’s interest in financial digitization has also grown. Internet research on how to have a digital business account has grown 104% compared to 2019.