FLORIDA, USA — Global payments company Mastercard is working to build out its growing suite of solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This, as it moves to offer more working capital support for players in the Latin American and Caribbean markets.

Executive vice-president for commercial and new payment flows Walter Pimenta, speaking yesterday to journalists during a round-table session at the Mastercard LAC 2024 Innovation Forum, said that as SMEs become more advanced in the digital space, the need to offer them greater support, in terms of access to payment solutions, remains at the forefront of his company’s agenda.

“There are many players, new players and traditional ones, in the ecosystem and we are bringing solutions to address their needs as we continue to look at a number of the pain points. The global marketplace is becoming more active in providing credit and so it is important that we create the products for SMEs to accept these,” he said.

“Other entities out there such as the banks are also becoming more aware of the needs of SMEs and are making their existing propositions compelling, so that they too can serve the sector properly,” he added.

SMEs, dubbed the backbone of economies, studies shows, now accounts for more than 90 per cent of businesses across the LAC region. Beyond their enormous roles of providing employment, in most territories they are also huge contributors to gross domestic product (GDP), adding as much as 25 per cent to economies.

Underscoring the work of the payments behemoth in the last few years to bring more consumers into the formal economy, Pimenta said that with financial inclusion being a large part of its strategy, the company continues to ensure that it has the right products, services and support tailored to meet the diverse needs of different segments.

“Through our partners [issuers and acquirers] and working hand-in-hand with governments, we have been doing this on a daily basis,” he noted.

“This is a game that no player can win alone, and so for us this requires partnership and cooperation as we seek to bring the right value to clients. I think the number one opportunity we, however, have is to help our SMEs to benefit from the digital economy and that means we have a massive opportunity to increase the acceptance of electronic payments to ensure higher levels of inclusion. For businesses that are now part of the digital economy and can make payments through Mastercard or even those farther ahead in their journey…coming up with the right set of products, value proposition and services is incredibly important if we can make them feel the support and see the benefit we can bring to them,” Pimenta said.

“Through our recently launched Mastercard Move Commercial Payments, banks can now, through their own applications such as apps and web channels, enable SMEs to pay their suppliers overseas and in real-time. It is now live in the LAC and we are planning to expand it much further in the next few years. There is a tremendous momentum for the small business landscape in this region and at Mastercard we always listen to the need so as to ensure that all the products and services we create are usually in alignment and we do so in working with our partners,” he further stated.

Addressing hundreds gathered at the opening of this year’s 13th staging of the Innovation Forum, LAC President Andrea Scerch said that while there has been mixed progress in the payment revolution, Mastercard continues to accelerate the shift from cash to digital in the region. With a current focus to move pass access to facilitate greater usage, he said this will further help to determine the success of the digital movement.

“Access will not be enough as we also need to think about usage. In driving usage, we must, however, ensure that there is wider acceptance, positive customer experiences along with increased confidence and trust. At Mastercard we continue to invest in more solutions that will lead to this growth,” he stated.