PayU Expands Into Emerging Central America Markets

PayU is expanding its digital payments business in Central America.

The Netherlands-based payment service provider announced the expansion in a Tuesday (Dec. 13) press release sent to PYMNTS.

With the anticipated launch, merchants in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica will be able to use PayU’s online payments platform to process transactions in dollars and local currencies.

“PayU is already active across Latin America and parts of Central America, including Panama, so this expansion bolsters an already strong regional offering,” the company said.

Citing growing financial inclusion and internet penetration, as well as a “young, digitally-savvy demographic,” PayU said Central America is “a key strategic market” for consumer eCommerce, and it expects the region will deliver high growth over the next five years.

“Our expansion into Central America … reflects our commitment to providing the smoothest online payment experience for consumers in high-growth markets and merchants globally,” Mario Shiliashki, global CEO of PayU’s Global Payments Organization, said in the announcement.

“Especially in these economically challenging times worldwide, we’re proud to be making fully compliant payment processing across Latin and Central America even easier, while driving growth for international merchants through access to new markets and consumer segments,” he added.

In a PYMNTS panel discussion last month, Shiliashki said many international merchants fail to adapt their payment options when entering emerging markets. For example, by assuming that a high preference for card payments is universal.

See more: Cross-Border Merchants Must Heed Local Cultural Nuances of Payments

Pointing to Colombia, where he said only 50% of consumers use cards, he indicated that global businesses need to localize their payment systems to adapt to consumers’ preferences and cultural nuances.

In a separate interview, Shiliashki said that PayU is also exploring how to best offer credit to consumers in emerging markets, for example, by piloting buy now, pay later (BNPL) offerings.

Stating that in many emerging markets BNPL is “not the battleground as we see in the U.S. or Western Europe,” he said that “there’s a massive opportunity there to expand.”

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