Good Morning Readers,

In this edition of #MovenAroundTheGlobe, I will be sharing some insights with you from Guayaquil, Ecudador. Before I kick this post off, I must say… Guayaquil surprised me! Everywhere I turn, I am wonderfully impressed. In case you plan to make a trip anytime soon, I strongly recommend a stroll on Malecón 2000, which is the boardwalk overlooking the Guayas River. Several of the greatest historical monuments in the history of Guayaquil can be seen along its 2.5km stretch, as well as museums, gardens, fountains, shopping malls, restaurants, bars, food courts, the first IMAXtheater in South America, as well as boarding docks where several embarkations offer both daytime and nighttime tours up and down the Guayas River.

With several meetings behind me now, I must admit that the Financial Services landscape here is very interesting. Since the 1999 crisis, when many local banks closed their doors, the banking system in Ecuador has completely changed. Now, much more open and innovative, the financial services industry in Ecuador looks incredibly promising. It’s one of the few markets in Latin America with a local neobank (Credipy, founded in 2015) and it should most definitely be a market you keep a close eye on.

Today, I spent much of my time discussing the transformation of one of the incumbent banks to becoming a fully digital bank and its subsequent expansion across Latin America. With millions of Ecuadorians working abroad, in the Americas and Southern Europe, and a $2bn remittence business, the opportunities are endless. Expect to see me back in Guayaquil in the very near future!

I hope you found these insights interesting! Thanks again for keeping up with my travels thus far.

I’m off to Lima, Peru this evening… so be on the lookout for my next post soon.

Hasta luego,

Morten Kriek
VP EMEA
Moven Enterprise