60: Modern Banking for the Unbanked in Latin America

Guest Bio
Marcelo Rojas Decut is the Co-Founder & CEO of eCLUB a modern bank for the unbanked in Latin America. 

Marcelo has a professional career with over 18 years of senior experience in the financial sector - in retail and corporate banking - as a board member and commercial director in large global banks such as BBVA and Citi Bank focusing on LatAm, particularly Argentina, Paraguay & Uruguay. 

He is also an entrepreneur at heart and 10 years ago ventured into new areas including Agro business and the use of innovative technologies to improve the yield and performance of its investments.

Since 2017 he is a member of the executive board of CREA - the regional Consortium of Agricultural Innovation. Marcelo is a chartered accountant, with an Executive Post-graduate from the University of Navarra (IESE), a post-graduate degree in Applied Business Management at the California State University, as well as a Masters in Strategic Management from the Universidad de Misiones (UNAM)

eCLUB

eCLUB is a FinTech company focused on democratizing impact by providing access to financial services in Latin America. eCLUB’s mission is to solve the financial inclusion problem in Latin America. The social mission is to empower the 270 million unbanked people to help unlock Latin America ́s growth potential by giving them access to financial services for the first time. The vision is to become the regional leader. The first target country is Paraguay, given the current opportunities and partnerships available for the faster and more successful delivery of the initial growth plans and impact.

Summary
How do you help people improve their lives? Research shows that Impact Economics is key, which is driven by financial inclusion and empowerment, since the opportunities for people increase exponentially as their income and financial situation improves. But for this, people first need to be able to access what only a small percentage of the population can - equality so people have the same available to them, but this begins with access.  
During this insightful conversation you will have a window open for you … to show you the current situation in Latin America, what needs to be done, what can be done, and who is doing it, and the immense opportunity for Impact Investing.

Key Points

• In the US almost 60% of transactions are done digitally, in Latin America almost 75% of transactions are done in cash.
• The unbanked are living in an unequal society where people who have the least access to cash have to pay a higher price for financial services.
• We can help to close the huge gap between those who have access to financial services and those who haven't.
• eCLUB’s mission is to solve the financial inclusion problem in Latin America. The main focus is to help people have a better life. That is the end goal.
• Consumers have very few alternatives, most of the banking sector is concentrated in very few banks. And you can see the same story in every country. The sector is dominated by 5 or 6 banks that concentrate 80% of deposits and 80% of the loans. 
• Due to the lack of competition in the sector, the people have to pay some of the highest interest rates in the world, and some of the highest fees in the world. Yes, because they have no alternative. 
• The worst is that this way of doing banking has created a big problem, where almost 50% of the middle class and lower-middle-class people don't have access to an account, over 70% of the people don't have access to credit.
• Banking the unbanked means that simplicity is key in the user experience.
• “We are not just providing financial services, we are also giving the unbanked tools to improve their financial knowledge to re functionalities t