The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A MasterCard executive yesterday said the company is committed to driving Fintech (financial technology) solutions in The Bahamas so that its "underserved and unbanked" populations can better access such services.

Jimena Elia, MasterCard's country manager for the western and Dutch Caribbean market, told Tribune Business during the firm's fintech summit that it is also “bridging” gaps between the public and private sector on solutions for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).

"We want to continue to develop The Bahamas to bring finech to the centre of the dialogue so we really can serve the underserved and unbanked segments of the population with new technology, with new ideas, disrupting the traditional way to serve those segments," she said

MasterCard is also focused on “better market inclusion” for SMEs as commercial banks exit branches and a physical presence in the Family Islands, aiming to fill the void in financial services access that this has created. It is supporting all types of fintech and “there is no preference" between online services, credit card machine stations and even digital wallet providers. “We work with everyone and everyone is welcome to work with us,” Ms Elia said.

“From a fintech point of view there is no difference between the fintechs that work with crypto and fintechs that work without crypto. A crypto, at the end of the day, will respect the value proposition of every single partner. I want to stress how we can really serve the SMEs who, at the end of the day, are not being 100 percent served by the banks.

"SMEs don’t need to be afraid to accept electronic payments. I know that probably they have a lot of fears in regards to transparency, and they also have fears on paying a lot of fees. But, at the end of the day, when they start engaging and they start utilising and embracing the new technologies they start… to realise that sales gross a lot, people are more engaged and the check out is super flawless.”

Acceptance of electronic and touchless payment methods has increased in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, while merchants are seeing the benefits of having access to more sales data and information on customer habits than they did when using cash only. “They then become promoters for more adoption of electronic payments,” Ms Elia said.

"That’s the productive cycle we’re trying to get, working very closely with SMEs, and that’s why the role of SMEs is crucial and critical in every single economy, especially in developing countries.” 0