Depositing for a winning future
Colombia
Pibank, the digital bank of Banco Pichinacha, a distinguished South American financial institution, was pleased with the success its digital affiliate Pibank enjoyed in Spain. And when a business model wins in one market, it’s only natural to apply it to another... this time in Colombia.
With that in mind, Pichincha did its homework and concluded that Colombia would be a natural fit for Pibank. To launch in the new market, Pichincha chose a banking core as solid as its business model, and today, Pibank is offering attractive savings accounts and term deposits across the Andean country.
To get started, a Mambu and Pibank team determined that the best MVP with which to go live would offer a savings account that paid interest on a monthly basis. It would also calculate withholding tax if the daily interest accrued or paid was equal to or greater than a preset threshold. For reference, in Colombia, withholding taxes only applies if the daily accrual amount exceeds a predetermined threshold.
This greenfield operation required a core to get the operation up and running and compliant with Colombian tax laws, and with speed and scalability in mind, Pichincha chose Mambu. The MVP went live in November of 2022, only seven months after kickoff, by offering a revenue-paying savings account (cuenta remunerada) as well as a fixed-term deposit.
While implementing tax withholding mechanisms presented a challenge, the composable nature of Mambu’s core allowed the team to implement all necessary features that would ensure a more convenient user experience, only the best of which are acceptable when dealing with deposits.
During the preparation phase, the Mambu and Pibank readiness team worked to ensure that legal and regulatory requirements would be reflected in all working aspects of the digital bank and not just those pertaining to technical and architectural areas. The team spent a proper amount of time configuring the MVP to ensure a smooth launch and glitch-free user experiences once the project went live.
“No two financial entities are alike, and Mambu’s core is designed to allow a financial entity to design and assemble a banking business tailor-made to meet its specific business goals. Thanks to Mambu’s composable approach, we brought Pibank to Colombia with a carefully constructed strategy, and we are delivering to our customers what they want today and what they will want tomorrow,” said Begoña Martínez Cogorro, Vice President Banca Directa Pichincha Corp.
Customer needs will evolve, just as will rules and regulations governing deposits and other financial transactions evolve. With Mambu’s pure SaaS, purely cloud-native core, we can adjust our framework quickly and nimbly to not only meet such challenges when they represent themselves but to thrive in them as well.
For Mambu, Pichincha’s decision to bring Pibank to Colombia represented a splendid opportunity to help the firm compose a digital bank that would quickly comply with norms in a new country.
“Pibank’s launch in Colombia is testament to the value that composable banking taking place on a truly cloud-native, pure SaaS core brings. The team took its time to make sure the technical and business ends of operation complied with all laws and business practices in Colombia, and today, Pibank is growing and scaling in this crucial market. Mambu will continue to support Pibank in Colombia as it provides banking services to more and more customers with an increasing array of products and services going forward,” said Paula Neira, Regional Director at Mambu.
