More than 60 banks in South America will service operations with bitcoin

Bantotal, the leading provider of banking technology in Latin America, serving more than 60 financial institutions in 14 countries, has begun working with the Bitex cryptocurrency exchange. The purpose of the partnership is to simplify cross-border payments through the Bitcoin blockchain .

According to a representative of Bantotal, approximately 20 million people use the company's money management services.

Through this collaboration, Bantotal customers will be able to access Bitex services in the traditional financial services market that Bantotal offers as part of its BDevelopers program.

“With this technology, banks will be able to access the API and control the entire process of [cross-border] payments with the visibility and reliability of the Bitcoin blockchain,” the press release said.

Some experts have already called this a “quantum leap” for banks in Latin America, as the Bitex cross-border payment commission is on average five times lower than international bank transfers.

Moreover, these transfers are much faster – last February, after switching to Bitex cross-border payment services, payments for exporters between Argentina and Paraguay decreased from one month to one hour.

In essence, Bitex acts as an intermediary for national and regional banks in the conversion of fiat payments into bitcoin, and then into fiat payments, which avoids numerous conversions of fiat currencies.

Now, when making a payment from Argentina to Chile, there is no need to buy dollars for the Argentine pesos, then transfer them to the USA, then transfer dollars to Chile and exchange them for Chilean pesos. Payment from Argentina to Chile will be made directly using bitcoin.

Calling this the “p2p banking” system, Bitex is engaged in converting local currencies into bitcoin and vice versa , as well as distributing them into regional or national bank accounts.

“By buying and translating Bitcoin, Bitex does everything on your behalf. You as a user simply send money, and Bitex will take care of the rest , ”commented Leo Eldouyen, vice president of the nonprofit organization Bitcoin Argentina and founder of the blockchain startup Koibanx.

It is believed that the demand for Bitex services among Latin American consumers will increase sharply, as banks still face a number of obstacles when working with cryptocurrencies .

This is affected by the Know Your Client (KYC) legislation and anti-money laundering (AML) rules , which make it difficult to use the Bitcoin blockchain.

The partnership between Bitex and Bantotal is expected to increase the national GDP of Latin American countries, allowing merchants to easily get involved in the p2p economy.

Publication date 08/14/2019
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