Revolut, a neobank super-app that also holds a banking license in Lithuania, says Latin America is a key region for its growth going forward. Revolut launched operations in Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, this past May.
Latin America has experienced dramatic Fintech growth as the region tends to be underbanked – or not banked at all. At the same time, established financial services have been slow to change with the times, creating a serious opportunity for innovative Fintechs to provide financial services.
The company quotes the World Bank, which reports there are around 122 million unbanked individuals in Latin America. Revolut says its “light app” will allow users to transfer funds to another Revolut app customer for free. The app is already live in Chile as well as other multiple countries around the world.
Revolut says its current Portuguese and Spanish customers will be of “special importance” as they tend to have significant communities of expatriates in South and Central America as well as Mexico.
For Portugal, Revolut says almost 800.000 expats live in the country, with 30% of them being Brazilian.
Revolut recently announced that it was starting to offer accounts to non-US citizens lawfully in the US who do not have an SSN/ITIN.
Revolut did not discuss any ongoing or proposed banking license applications.
Revolut has a presence in 41 markets with more than 30 million customers worldwide.
