Sr. Pago is bringing Spuare-like payments to Mexico’s “unbanked” citizens

Sr. Pago, one of the two largest mobile point of sale services in Mexico, today announced the launch of the Sr. Pago Card System, the first service in the Americas that combines a smartphone chip credit card reader with a debit card that can be reloaded with payments accepted through the card reader. Provided in conjunction with MasterCard and Te Creemos, the Sr. Pago Card System is offered to individuals and small businesses in Mexico that have been underserved by existing banking services.

It’s often hard for Americans to appreciate just how limited access to financial services can be elsewhere in the world. In Mexico, for example, some 60 percent of the population (approximately 75 million people) would be considered unbanked. Shockingly, however, smartphone penetration in many of these emerging markets is as high or higher than in the developed world. This fact presents an opportunity to address the banking problem in ways that were never possible. Mexico City-based SrPago, which has been in the ecommerce business for four years, is now taking the banking market head on with its hybrid reloadable credit card and mobile card reader platform. After launching its mobile point of sale (mPOS) solution in Q4, the company is already the second-largest mPOS provider in Mexico with 3,000 customers and $700,000 in monthly transaction volume.