USEND talks about the crypto-friendly super app

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So-called global citizens, who do business in more than one country, have a very specific set of financial services needs.

With most banks targeting people who tend to stay in one place and neobanks being primarily consumer oriented, the opportunity to serve this global niche appears to be a big differentiator for USEND, which was acquired by Brazils Banco Inter in August.

Read more: Banco Inter acquires the start-up FinTech USEND

USEND is best known for its money transfer services and the very specific audience it initially targeted – Brazilians living in the United States and American businesses that needed to make payments in Brazil. But despite a hyper-targeted user base, the company can leverage Banco Inter’s expertise and set much more ambitious goals, said Ran Grushkowsky, COO and CTO of USEND.

The company aims to become a fully digital bank, competing with Chime and SoFi in the biggest financial market of all, he said.

Were looking to replicate Banco Inter’s model in Brazil and do so in the United States, Grushkowsky told PYMNTS Karen Webster in an interview. This template is essentially a super app, catering to all consumer needs and providing very cheap financial services and going beyond that in insurance, purchasing and more.

Webster asked if this means USEND’s ambitions are different from existing digital banks, noting that most of them offer prepaid interchange services and have yet to expand to a full range of financial services. .

This is the occasion, said Grushkowsky. If you look at Banco Inter, they have a lot of expertise in offering a range of financial services in Brazil. By bringing this wealth of knowledge to the United States, we can create a very interesting value proposition for American residents.

He acknowledged that many other financial service providers have super apps ambitions and the field is competitive. Some of USEND’s competitors are better funded and established, like PayPal, Square, and others. Yet USEND’s history of serving immigrants and global citizens gives it an edge that its more well-known challengers lack.

Grushkowsky told Webster that regulators have shown great enthusiasm for USEND’s partnership with Banco Inter and the ability to create a unique banking bridge between Brazil and the United States. a definite advantage for embarking on other complementary financial services. Additionally, USEND has a clear advantage over traditional banks that struggle to serve the citizens of the world due to an infrastructure that makes cross-border transactions slow and expensive.

We also have business-level services that are very relevant to business owners, as well as services for individual immigrants, he said. We have very advantageous capabilities when it comes to transferring money internationally. Combining these advantages with other banking products makes sense, especially with Banco Inters’ expertise in additional services.

Grushkowsky said USEND is taking a close look at the area of ​​broker licensing, with the goal of offering clients the ability to buy and sell stocks both nationally and internationally.

See also: New technology greases old payment rails to enable fast and inexpensive international banking

Essentially, we want to democratize the ability to access these services no matter what country you’re in, starting with the United States and Brazil and expanding beyond that, Grushkowsky said. Were really looking for a well-established global footprint by leveraging everything USEND has done individually and adding the resources and expertise of Banco Inter.

Areas such as loans and cryptocurrencies have also attracted interest from USEND, Grushkowsky said. In the latter’s case, he noted that USEND is uniquely positioned to try to get traditional banks to buy into the idea of ​​crypto, although most have been notoriously worried. This is because USEND has been regarded for years as a leading innovator in compliance.

This gives us some credit when it comes to working with our financial partners and regulators because they know we’re not taking any shortcuts, said Grushkowsky. We really try to understand the problems and find suitable solutions before we launch a new product on the market. Thus, this history and this report give us a certain latitude to innovate. [around cryptocurrency].

There are a lot of problems associated with these technologies that we were working on, he continued. We were still evaluating, we haven’t pulled the trigger yet, but it’s definitely an area of ​​focus.

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NEW PYMNTS DATA: TODAY’S SELF-SERVICE PURCHASING JOURNEY – SEPTEMBER 2021

By the way: 80% of consumers want to use non-traditional payment options like self-service, but only 35% were able to use them for their most recent purchases. Today’s Self-Service Shopping Journey, a collaboration between PYMNTS and Toshiba, analyzes over 2,500 responses to find out how merchants can address uptime and perception issues to meet the demand for free kiosks -service.

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