[whoisjuan]

Lack of financial literacy and no acquisitive power + informal economy. Banks in Latam invest a lot in Credit Card penetration but they only can offer credit to people who are already embeded into the financial system through formalized payroll.

Many people in Latam aren't part of a payroll and make their living from the informal economy. Even if those people have the acquisitive power, Banks will never extend them a credit line because they don't have anything to demonstate a steady income besides their word.

[atlasunshrugged]

Got it, that's interesting - also interesting to see Rappi, which definitely does have more data (for its users at least) on spending habits and earning, even in the informal economy launching a card. I wonder if there'll be more of that for companies like Uber/Taxify that specialize in informal labor but serve as a jobs market issuing their own local credit lines in partnership with financial institutions

[rogereur]

Theres a company called Heru. They do all kinds of services for gig workers. It is definitely an interesting data-set to underwrite, you can connect to the apps APIs and pull a lot of data of these people and potentially create better financial products for them