Contents
- Key Takeaways for Financial Leaders
- Building Beyond Technology: A Human-Centered Mission
- Opportunities for Global Financial Players
- A Non-Traditional Path to Fintech Leadership
In the latest episode of the PayPod Podcast, hosted by Kevin Rosenquist from Soar Payments, Ximena Aleman, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Prometeo, shares insights on how Open Banking is transforming financial infrastructure across Latin America. From addressing interoperability challenges to harnessing real-time payments, Ximena offers a candid and visionary perspective on what it takes to build a connected financial ecosystem.
Key Takeaways for Financial Leaders
- Interoperability: The Biggest Hurdle to Scale
Ximena emphasizes that fragmented financial systems across LATAM make cross-border operations highly complex. Prometeo addresses this by automating interoperability through a single API, simplifying connections between banks and financial institutions. - Banking APIs: Infrastructure, Not Just Tools
"We realized that actually the problem here is the infrastructure—how do we build this without having this layer?" Ximena reflects, explaining how Prometeo’s API model eliminates bottlenecks and simplifies access to both financial data and payment flows. - The Rise of A2A Payments
Ximena discusses the growing relevance of account-to-account (A2A) payments in LATAM, especially as an alternative to costly card-based transactions. “That’s a driver for A2A adoption—fees are just too high for many small businesses to accept credit cards,” she notes. - Pix as a Blueprint for Regional Adoption
The conversation also highlights the success of Brazil’s Pix, which Ximena calls "a huge success" that has redefined payment infrastructure in the region. She explains, “In Brazil, Pix is now used more than debit and credit cards combined." Its adoption shows the potential for other countries in the region to replicate this model. - Unified Infrastructure for Payments and Data
"There are huge synergies between data and money flow,” Ximena explains. Prometeo’s dual-service API integrates both, providing businesses with seamless tools to manage financial operations across borders.
Building Beyond Technology: A Human-Centered Mission
Throughout the conversation, Ximena emphasizes that Prometeo’s mission isn’t just about technology—it’s about transforming people’s experience with money. She explains:
“You can’t control macroeconomic factors like inflation or political turmoil, but what we can change is how people experience money in their daily lives.” Prometeo focuses on improving financial inclusion and providing seamless tools for businesses and individuals navigating a complex financial landscape.
Opportunities for Global Financial Players
Ximena also reflects on the rapid evolution of LATAM’s financial ecosystem, noting how the percentage of people with access to banking has grown from 40% to 78% in recent years. This surge, combined with the shift towards real-time payments, opens new opportunities for global financial institutions to expand and innovate in the region.
“The way users interact with money is changing globally," Ximena points out, “and financial institutions need to adapt to these new behaviors.”
A Non-Traditional Path to Fintech Leadership
Ximena’s journey into fintech didn’t follow the typical path. "I just knew I wanted to build something meaningful," she says. That drive to create impactful solutions has led Prometeo to become the largest Open Banking platform in LATAM, with over 1,200 financial institutions integrated across 11 countries—and they’re just getting started.
Listen to the Full Episode:
🎧 Tune in to the PayPod Podcast to hear the full conversation with Ximena here.
