Virtual wallets and financial applications are increasingly gaining ground among Argentines due to the facilities they offer to pay, save and send money.
In the midst of a boom in promotions and new features, the competition between these companies is tougher than ever.
According to data from the Central Bank,
last November 16.1 million payment accounts were registered with a total balance of $226.3 billion
.
At the same time, the balances invested in Common Investment Funds (FCI) of money reached $730 billion, as detailed in the latest Minority Payments Report, a monthly compilation made by the monetary authority.
In total, balances in virtual wallets and those invested via common funds represented
3.3% of private sector deposits in banks at the end of the year.
But
what are the most used wallets and what are the economic groups behind them?
Who owns Mercado Pago
According to the same report
, Mercado Pago is the one that leads in popularity: it manages 75% of the total balances in virtual accounts and 86% of the funds invested in the capital market.
Mercado Pago
is much more than the
fintech leg of the ecommerce giant Mercado Libre
, founded 21 years ago by
Marcos Galperin
.
The company went from an e-commerce startup to
an $80 billion fintech juggernaut.
And it managed to grow at a rate of 40% annually and has had a total profitability of 9,000%, including dividends, since 2007. Thus it became
the second most valuable publicly traded company in Latin America
, only behind the state oil giant Brazilian Petróleo Brasileiro.
Prex
The second place for the wallets that manage the most balance in the country is occupied by
Prex,
with 11% of the total funds.
Founded in 2015
, it is a digital financial services platform that has
more than 2 million users throughout the region.
30% of its shareholding belongs to Itaú Unibanco.
Personal Pay
Meanwhile, second place for funds managed under FCI is occupied by
Personal Pay,
with 7% of the total.
The Telecom Argentina wallet gained more than 1.8 million users
within two years of its launch.
Uala
Ualá
occupies
third place among the most used wallets
.
The fintech founded in 2017 by
Pierpaolo Barbieri
has become a true hub of financial solutions: much more than a digital wallet, it includes a brokerage company and a banking license.
It has the financial backing of international investors, among whom the magnate
George Soros stands out.
MODE
The list of the wallets most sought after by Argentines is completed with
MODO, a kind of aggregator of banking applications, founded by 35 of the main public, private and cooperative banks throughout the country,
which seeks to simplify the daily use of money and reduce the use of cash and plastic cards.
Currently, more than 14 million users and 800,000 businesses in Argentina have already joined MODO as a tool to carry out their financial operations.
Orange
Meanwhile,
Naranja X
appears as one of the most sought after.
The fintech is part of the
Galicia Financial Group
and currently 6 million people connect with some product from the Naranja X ecosystem;
while more than 3.5 million users leave their deposits in the paid account offered by the app.
NE