the technology firm Revol, of British origin and considered globally as one of the largest neobanks in the world, seeks to keep a part of the remittance market between the United States (USA) and Mexico, valued at more than 50,000 million dollars, and for this reason it has Updated in the neighboring country to the north its functionality for sending money to Mexican territory.
In interview, Juan Miguel Guerra Dávila, CEO of Revolut in Mexico, explained to this medium that the technology firm still does not have an entity that operates in the country; however, by having a presence in the United States, it was possible to enable the shipping functionality free of charge from the United States.
“The area of Mexico and the United States for us is a super region and we do not see it as a border, but as a group of people who have a lot of interaction, cross a lot with each other and lose a lot of money and time in commissions, bad deals, you expect from typical service providers, it is a fairly neglected market,” explained Guerra Dávila.
“We realized,” he added, “that all this infrastructure, originally built in Europe, can be tropicalized and brought here so that we could offer a better experience at a much better cost.”
In July 2021, Revolut announced its low-cost shipping functionality to Mexico in the United States and in October of last year, it enabled the functionality to allow up to 10 free transfers per month; but a few days ago, this function was updated again and now allows the same number of monthly shipments to any bank account in Mexico, free of charge and, what is new, in a period of up to 30 minutes.
The executive highlighted that the transfer can be made to any bank account with CLABE in Mexico, with a competitive exchange rate, and after the 10th shipment, a commission of 0.3 percent per transfer is charged.
Guerra Dávila stated that Revolut’s intention is to remove all the friction that exists in the delivery mechanisms of traditional remittances, where various intermediaries participate, which makes commissions high.
“In the case of remittances, instead of having a long chain of correspondents in the middle, we have a single infrastructure partner that distributes them in Mexico to any bank account, so the origin is a Revolut account in the United States and the destination is any bank account in Mexico, any account with CLABE,” he said.
According to the Revolut executive, it is currently estimated, based on World Bank calculations, that the average commission for sending a remittance to Mexico is around 5%, but with the platform’s solution this percentage is reduced to zero.
According to the statistics of Bank of Mexico, during the previous year the country received 51,594 million dollars for remittances and 98.9% of the total income was made through electronic transfers, adding 51,045 million dollars.
Plans for Mexico
Currently, Revolut operates in 35 countries and has more than 18 million customers, who register about 150 million transactions per month and has a valuation of close to 33,000 million dollars.
Since 2021, the news of his intention to arrive in Mexico was announced and in October of last year the appointment of Juan Miguel Guerra Dávila as the head of the firm in this country was finalized.
Guerra Dávila explained that the intention of this firm is to land a legal figure in Mexico, possibly with a banking license, to have an entity in this country and provide the services in national territory that it offers in other countries, especially in the matter of shipments. international, but also with other functionalities such as credit card, investments, among others.
“We have already legally established the entity, right now we are in talks in presentations with the regulators, putting together the team, tropicalizing the product and I would hope this year to be able to launch it in Mexico and from there continue building the service offer,” said the manager.
“The middle step,” he added, “I can’t tell yet, but at the end of the road, since we want to do everything, we would be pursuing a banking license, which is what allows you to carry out all kinds of activities.”
The intention, according to Guerra Dávila, is to build a super financial application, in such a way that a person does not require, to manage their money, the use of 20 different applications for each functionality. “This makes Revolut a truly viable option for those who want to leave behind the traditional bank and have a well-rounded relationship that gives them the experience they’re looking for.
The general director of Revolut in Mexico recalled that the platform was born in 2015 in the United Kingdom, created by Nikolai Storonski and Vlad Yatsenko, in order to support frequent travelers in their financial operations when they are outside their country of origin. , so that in its global evolution it has been able to create easily accessible products in terms of international transfers.
“The day after tomorrow that we have an entity operating in Mexico, it will be even more efficient (the shipment process from the United States) because we will do it between two entities of the same group,” said Guerra Dávila.
The executive highlighted that currently in the United States, Revolut maintains an aggressive growth and in this context, the people most interested in its product offering are those who have ties abroad. “They are people who go on vacation once or twice a year or people who send money to Mexico every month and when it comes to moving money abroad, you almost always find abusive rates.”
