Company Targets the “Bankless”; Develops Sweeping One-Stop-Shop for Underserved Hispanic Consumers in Mexico and US

When it comes to inclusion in the depth and breadth of financial services available to consumers in the digital era, Mexico is the caboose, and it just decoupled from the train.

According to statistics calculated by The World Bank, only 37 percent of adults in Mexico have bank accounts, and just 32 percent have made or received digital payments. Both figures demonstrate that Mexican consumers are significantly behind compared to the US and Canada. Worse, the gender gap for financial services is an 8 percentage point gulf.

In 2019, credit to the private nonfinancial sector was just 42 percent of GDP, more than three times less than the 143 percent average for emerging markets worldwide.

To make matters worse, Mexico has a high proportion of workers who make up part of what’s known as the “informal economy,” upwards of 57 percent, according to research from INEGI, Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography. The significance of this situation is that it means Mexican consumers – like many Hispanic consumers in the United States – experience difficulty creating and maintaining any kind of credit history that would make them eligible for common banking products like car loans or home loans.

And that’s why Newt, a financial services company focused on serving the bankless customers who fall into that gap, is working on connecting consumers to the kinds of bank-related products and services that have thus far been denied to them by the marketplace.

Newt has crafted – and continues to expand -- a singular, integrated one-stop-shop platform connecting an ecosystem of service providers offering financial services that include prepaid cards, digital subscriptions, bill payments, and cross border remittances.

The network features omnichannel acceptance through mobile, web, point of service, and self-service kiosks, with verification and authentication solutions that include fraud, compliance, and risk management capabilities. The platform’s initial focus is the underbanked or bankless in Mexico and the Hispanic population in the US.

What makes Newt attractive is the combination of its scalable SaaS transaction platform which addresses large industry verticals and high volume omnichannel applications with a centrally positioned exchange network that connects all parties of the financial transaction to an integrated and expanding proprietary ecosystem. This creates a unique competitive moat with organizations serving the underbanked and unbanked. Moreover, Newt’s banking license acquisition enables digital lending and international transactions, and increases capacity for higher margin business.

To that end, Newt recently signed up with Marsat Communications to provide Newt’s services and digital products on their network. Under the terms of the agreement, Newt will provide its digital portfolio of payments and services to Marsat Communications Group’s network of satellite service providers and distributors.

Marsat Communications has more than eleven large distributors in nine Mexican states with a robust network that offers satellite telecommunication services to thousands of users. Marsat will offer Newt’s digital products and services to their end users, which include partners in the telemedicine and public transportation market.

Marsat currently boasts more than 20,000 customers, who will gain access to Newt’s entire portfolio of digital products and services at locations where Marsat provides coverage, including Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chiapas, Colima, Jalisco, Michoacán, Quintana Roo, Oaxaca and Tabasco.

Through this partnership, the customers will be able to access cell phone top-ups, bill payments, digital gift cards, and the entire range of digital products in Newt’s catalog.

“We have increased our footprint of end customers in Mexico by adding clients interested in our catalog of products and services,” Sergio Maya Aleman, CEO of Latin America of Newt, stated. “We will continue adding thousands of customers by partnering with distributors and service providers who offer digital products in telecommunications and who greatly benefit from offering our products and services.” He added: “With this agreement, Newt delivers on the promise made to our clients of bringing our products and services closer to new outlets and points of sale in more and more regions of the country.”

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