Banking tech: Argentine banking is committed to digitalization and interoperability
PRESS RELEASE
The financial industry in Argentina is immersed in an exciting digital transition. Historically, banking operated through analog and physical channels. Currently, it is increasingly transitioning towards digital channels, becoming the core of its business.
In this sense, banking technology becomes crucial so that financial entities can no longer only innovate, but also attend to the “business as usual ” of their business, which is already largely digital. This has produced a change in mindset where banks seek to participate in new digital ecosystems to capture the future value that their clients are demanding in the short and medium term.
Recently, the Central Bank enabled a function – previously only offered by digital wallets – to traditional banks that allows their clients to fund their accounts without leaving the banking application, thus depositing money through an immediate debit operation (debin). Users will have the option to link other accounts, whether from other financial institutions (CBU) or from a virtual wallet (CVU), to move money between themselves or make a payment to a business by scanning a QR code. This resolution accounts for the progress being made with the aim of increasing interoperability.
Furthermore, digital payments do not stop growing in the country. The adoption of e-wallets and the use of QR codes to make payments has simplified transactions, reducing the need for cash and fostering financial inclusion. In fact, the Monthly Retail Payments report published by the Central Bank assured that in April 2023, payments made with cell phones through QR code or POS collection terminals exceeded – for the first time – those made with debit cards. by almost 3%, reaching a total of +198 million pesos.
But, although banking innovation continues to grow, it faces a significant challenge in terms of high monetary, time and risk costs when seeking to migrate its technology to a digital core. One of the technologies that allows financial entities to create these new financial services are solutions based on blockchain and the tokenization of assets, as they are more cost-efficient and faster to execute.
According to Statista , global revenue from blockchain technology will see massive growth. The market is expected to reach more than $39 billion by 2025. The banking sector is one of the first and most invested in blockchain, with around 30 percent of the market value of this technology concentrated in this field. .
“Financial entities have found many advantages in carrying part of their transactional processes through this technology. We see this need that clients bring us every day and we are seeing excellent results in integration projects that we carry out with many banks and organizations, such as Banco Macro in Argentina or Banco Davivienda in Colombia, among others,” comments Leo Elduayen , CEO and Co-Founder of Koibanx, a leading company in financial innovation through blockchain technology solutions.
3 BENEFITS THAT BLOCKCHAIN BRINGS TO THE BANKING SYSTEM
The adoption of blockchain technology has proven to be an ally of innovation for financial institutions around the world, promoting the integration of new functionalities and solutions to the traditional core in the industry to promote financial inclusion.
The CEO of Koibanx explains that the incorporation of blockchain technology to banking allows it to modernize and enhance its core to meet the demands of clients, who are already incorporating the services offered by other financial platforms. In this way, the advantage of adding transactional software on blockchain and tokenization provides the following benefits:
1- Operational efficiency. The integration of blockchain technology into the infrastructure of the financial system (APIs to the existing banking core, clearing houses, payment schemes and authorizations) allows financial entities to design and implement new financial solutions. By automating and simplifying financial transactions, banks can save time and resources, which in turn translates into a better experience for customers and even the possibility of offering new products to markets that have not yet been captured or are not banked.
2- Greater security. Tokens are difficult to counterfeit or duplicate, reducing the risk of fraud, identity theft, and increasing the protection of sensitive data (such as usernames or credit card numbers). Blockchain also provides a transparent record of all transactions, which can improve trust between the parties involved.
3- Dynamism of the economy. From atomizing and programming the issuance of trusts and their rules to be liquidated and subscribed, to the tokenization of credit invoices or “documents receivable” to allow crowdfunding of the same in a transparent and parameterized manner.
In conclusion, the opportunity and time to adopt disruptive technologies in the financial segment is now here. “Banks increasingly define themselves as participants in an ecosystem in collaboration with fintechs and not as traditional buyers or clients of technological products. These factors allow a scenario where having a technological layer that interoperates, that is transparent, that guarantees the issuance and management of different assets without altering the power/competition relationships between providers of financial products becomes increasingly important. I have no doubt that blockchain and Web3 are already being a strategic pillar in the dynamics of the financial system and its strategy for the coming years, as are identity and data management,” concluded Elduayen .
