Santander launches a new digital bank in the country

The Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA) yesterday approved the installation of a new 100 percent digital bank in the country.

Under the name Openbank Argentina, the new institution presented a global business plan for 1,000 million pesos.

The guarantee to the new commercial financial institution of the first degree was granted during the board meeting of the monetary authority.

“The bank will have as shareholders Open Digital Services (51 percent) and Banco Santander Río SA (49 percent) and an initial capital of 890 million pesos, which exceeds the minimum requirement established for its category,” the Central reported in a statement.

Strategy

From the new entity they said that Openbank seeks to combine the agility of a fintech with the fulfillment and support of the standards established by the Central to “promote banking penetration in Argentina, reaching sectors that traditional banks do not access today.”

“After the approval of the banking license, Openbank will now continue with the formal plans and remaining stages, until it fully begins operations in the first half of 2021,” sources at Openbank said.

Model

The new bank will follow the model of Openbank Spain, one of the largest digital banks in Europe with more than a million clients and chosen by Forbes magazine as the best Spanish bank in 2019, although it also operates in Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal .

Although it will only be fully operational in 2021, Openbank Argentina already has a CEO, Federico Procaccini, who held the same position at Google Argentina, in addition to serving as manager of Business Development for Mercado Pago and general director of Mercado Libre for Argentina and rest of Latin America.