Mercado Pago to Apply for Banking License in Argentina Amid Regional Expansion

Mercado Pago, the FinTech unit of Mercado Libre, plans to apply for a banking license in Argentina to expand the service offering of its digital model in the country.

A banking license from the Central Bank of Argentina will allow Mercado Pago to add more investment tools and new lines of credit, the company said in a Wednesday (May 28) press release.

Mercado Pago has pursued this strategy in Brazil and Mexico, according to the release.

“We are building the largest digital bank in Latin America,” Juan Martín de la Serna, president of Mercado Libre Argentina, said in the release. “In a region that still faces challenges in accessing quality services, we want to change the way users interact with the financial system with a digital bank where everyone wins.”

The company has already facilitated the economic development of individuals and small businesses in Argentina with its existing offerings, Alejandro Melhem, senior vice president of Mercado Pago for Hispanic Latin America, said in the release.

“Mercado Pago has democratized access to finance in Argentina, allowing people who were historically excluded to now save, receive payments, pay, invest and obtain credit from our digital account,” Melhem said.

When reporting its first quarter results on May 7, Mercado Libre said that Mercado Pago continued to scale its digital account during the quarter, increasing its number of monthly active users by 31% year over year to reach 64 million.

Mercado Pago has become a household name in Argentina and handles billions of pesos in transactions monthly, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence and Galileo collaboration, “Digital Developments: Charting Digital Payment Growth in Latin America.”

The report found that mobile wallets and real-time payment systems are rapidly gaining ground across Latin America, with the region not only embracing cashless technology but leading it.

It was reported in September that Mercado Pago applied for a banking license in Mexico. That license would enable the FinTech company to add savings and checking accounts, certificates of deposit, commercial loans and mortgages to the services it already offers in Mexico. Its existing services include credit and debit cards, international transfers, interest on funds stored in its digital wallet, and personal and small business loans.