The CEO of open bankPatricia Benito, revealed that the digital bank plans to land in Mexico before the end of 2024 and that it is preparing the strategic plan for its next landing in the United States.
“We are going to leave Mexico before the end of 2024, before two years we will already be operating in Mexico. It makes perfect sense, because it has enormous digitalization potential and a 96% mobile fleet,” he revealed during his speech at the third day of the II Spanish Economic Forum ‘Wake Up Spain’, organized by El Español, Invertia and D+I.
The strategic plan of the Santander group, announced in April 2019, included Openbank’s entry into ten new markets in the medium term. Currently, it is already present in Spain, Germany, Holland, Portugal and Argentina. In the latter country, it landed last summer in a ‘family & friends’ test format and opened its functionalities and products to all customers in January 2022.
The general director of Openbank has assured that the reception in Argentina is being “very good” and plans to become “shortly” a “relevant bank” in the country. “Argentina makes sense, because the 80% of the population is digitizedthere is a mobile fleet of 121% (there are more mobiles than people) and we have the presence of Santander Groupthat there are synergies and it is a strong lever”, he highlighted.
The entity first offered accounts and cards, launched new functionalities and is now preparing new investment and financing products. “We are very happy with the launch and with how it is working,” said Benito.
Regarding the plans to enter Mexico and the United States, the general director has revealed that Openbank will start operating in Mexico “within two years”, also with the ‘family & friends’ strategy and then starting with the commercialization of bills and cards.
“In the United States we are also working. There we are right now with the strategic plan, but yes, we are going ahead with it as well,” he said.
Regarding the recent launch of Zinia, the ‘buy now, pay later’ platform for consumer financing in Europe, the board has confirmed that the forecast is that it will be operational in the last quarter of 2022.
Invest to fight inflation
On the other hand, the general director of Openbank has reflected on the new scenario of rising inflation and has pointed out that the level of family savings, which is at record highs, offers an opportunity to invest money so as not to lose purchasing power, although he has warned that inflation is “a double-edged sword”.
“In order not to lose purchasing power, we have to use investment tools, but to maintain spending levels we have to consume part of the savings. So, we have to strike a balance between how much we keep in the current account and how much we invest, but it is clear that investment, nowadays, is very necessary”, he stated.
The 100% Santander digital bank has noticed an increase in interest in investment tools and products. In this scenario, the directive has pointed out the importance of banks offering facilities so that customers do not need to have large amounts of money or high financial knowledge to invest.
“Many times we don’t have the knowledge or the time for it and someone has to guide us. At Openbank we have two services, one for those who already know, which is a supermarket of funds and shares, and another for those who need that guide, which is the ‘roboadvisor’, he explained.
Regarding the alleged increase in cyberattacks since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Benito has acknowledged that the bank was already suffering from them before the war and that they continue “on the order of the day”, but he has not noticed that there has been an increase , although in any case the entity has redoubled its monitoring.
