From 2011 to the present, access to banking in Ecuador has increased from 38% to 65%, according to a World Bank study. Much of that growth was recorded from 2019 to 2022, with the pandemic included. For example, the report found that the number of interbank digital payment transfers grew 116% over the period — from 85 million transactions in 2019 to 183 million transactions in 2022 — and the amount grew 51%, moving from $117 million to $176 million USD.

Another piece of information is that the number of real-time transactions has multiplied by seven, from 9.7 million in 2019 to 70.6 million in 2022. Within this payment alternative are digital wallets or digital payment applications that have also seen an increase in demand their services.

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Between these applications there’s Deuna, a digital payment and collection app backed by Banco Pichincha that started in 2019 as part of the bank’s innovation cell, but launched to the general public in 2020, says Andrea Villafuerte, who heads Deuna’s commercial and marketing area, an app that has two types customers: end-users or payers and companies, including informal enterprises, one-person enterprises, micro-enterprises and large enterprises.

These companies are connected to the application’s mixed team, as explained by the executive director, who pointed out that part of this work is carried out by their microfinance advisers, and the other part is carried out by external commercial forces dedicated to the education, training and recruitment of companies, most of them unbanked.

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“We are working very hard to strengthen the digital payment ecosystem in the country and to strengthen access to banks,” said Villafuerte, who highlighted the app’s results and its growth so far. Two months ago, Deuna reached 1.3 million users, spread across 300,000 companies and 1 million paying users.

He added that the application records an average of 1.3 million monthly transactions, which amount to around $30 million.

He explained that payments in the app are made via QR codes, although he indicated that if the company does not have Deuna, you can receive the payment as long as you have a Banco Pichincha account.

“If the company does not have Deuna, it can be paid by setting up a Banco Pichincha account.” Although the application is already working on a solution that will be published in two months to make the system open to other banks, Villafuerte said. The goal is applications is to reach two million users by the end of this year and five million users in the next four years.

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Regarding the profitability of the application, Villafuerte clarified that since its launch, Deuna has not charged a commission for transactions made, neither to paying users nor to companies, but announced that from next July, the application will start charging large and well-organized affiliates in the application.

“We do not charge any commission, neither to users nor to business entities, but we are certainly in the process of starting to charge, but from organized companies, not from buses, because in order to strengthen the ecosystem, charging that segment would be a disincentive for us,” said Villafuerte.