OCA has been present in the payment market through its OCA credit card for more than 50 years. Now, “driven by the opening of the acquisition of the Visa and MasterCard seals in Uruguay, we decided to launch OCA Comercios”, reveals the CEO of the firm Pedro Moreira in an interview with Café & Negocios. As of this launch, the firm manages more than 20 thousand POS terminals. In addition, the financial services firm has 500,000 credit card clients and has already reached 200,000 clients in its new OCA Blue account service.
Below is a summary of the exchange between the CEO and Café & Negocios.
What is the proposal of OCA businesses?
In these more than 50 years we have learned a lot together with the more than 40,000 businesses with which we work, we have built trust and become synonymous with guarantee by complying with the service, payments and response times necessary for the merchant.
We have a proposal for any company that wants to implement the main means of payment, from a company with more than 100 points of sale to a sole proprietorship.
We create a complete ecosystem of services. We provide payment terminal services through Resonance and we already manage a network of more than 20 thousand POS terminals. Together with Itaú we have a proposal so that businesses that collect their sales at the bank can access financial services such as free accounts, lines of credit, advance funds and others.
To the personalized attention that characterizes us, we add the business portal where from any phone or computer they can see in real time the information of their sales and other functionalities that we are developing.
In short, we want to be the solution for the company and allow you to focus on your business, which is what you know how to do. We take care of the operation of means of payment.
What does this milestone of the opening of the seals represent for OCA? Can it enhance financial inclusion?
Participating as purchasers in the opening of the main seals means for OCA the opportunity to compete in the card sales transaction processing and payment service, where we are sure to be highly valued for our excellent value proposition for each business and for our trajectory in the Uruguayan market.
At the same time, it gives us the opportunity to add new verticals where payment methods are not present or as developed, providing innovative solutions for businesses and contributing to the development of payment methods in the Uruguayan market.
We understand that the opening of the acquisition in Uruguay (multi-acquisition) is one of the last actions of the financial inclusion process in which the Uruguayan market embarked years ago. In terms of commerce in general, it will bring better services, better prices and value-added offers that will result in a better experience when it comes to selling.
How has the adoption of credit cards evolved in relation to previous years? And what about loans?
For years at OCA we have been working very focused on the customer experience and with this we are learning and defining strategy. Today we have a strong growth in young clients and in the interior of the country mainly –but not only– with digital experience.
Today one of every four loans granted by non-bank financial companies in Uruguay was made in OCA.
We have more than 500 thousand clients with credit cards and 200 thousand with OCA Blue accounts.
This evolution that we see in our clients is what led us to add new products, as was the case with OCA Blue a few years ago, and today we are starting to talk about insurance or creating WhatsApp assistance that has more than two thousand interactions per day.
If we want to be the most relevant financial platform in Uruguay, we have to constantly review our strategy.
What acceptance has OCA Blue had in the market?
OCA Blue has had a spectacular acceptance. We expect to close 2022 with more than 230 thousand customers. This is because in terms of costs and benefits it is the best product from Uruguay.
An account without maintenance costs, with unlimited free transfers, with all the information on the cell phone and with personalized, agile attention and without bureaucracy has allowed a very good penetration of the product in Uruguayans.
