Uruguayan Payments Firm dLocal Secures UK License for Global Expansion

Hey Payments Fanatic!

DLocal has obtained a U.K. payment institution license from the Financial Conduct Authority, enabling the Uruguayan payments firm to onboard new U.K. merchants through its local entity, dLocal Opco UK.

Pedro Arnt, dLocal's CEO, explains their unique position: "The U.K. has become a hub for many global companies — even the American companies, some Asian companies — for their emerging market expansion, primarily in Africa, and in some cases LatAm." The company now holds over 30 licenses and registrations worldwide.

Established in 2016, dLocal specializes in cross-border payments for emerging markets including Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Uruguay. The company plans to expand its U.K. presence, with key executives already based in London and a global workforce exceeding 1,000 employees.

Let's see how this plays out.

It's a jam-packed newsletter full of interesting Payments News updates today, so you better get to it👇

Cheers,

Marcel

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INSIGHTS

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GOLDEN NUGGET

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐞-𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐞 𝐢𝐧 2024👇

The mobile payments landscape in Europe exhibits significant fragmentation, driven by rivalry among international digital wallets (PayPal, ApplePay...) local mobile payments (Bizum, TWINT, VIPPS...) and overarching initiatives: European Payments Initiative (EPI).

𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞 — PSPs have also specialized in aggregating local payment methods to fulfill this need to offer a localized checkout experience:

I.e. PPRO, CITCON, Checkout.com, Rapyd etc...

Over the past 2 decades, for 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬 and 𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐬, mobile interfaces have become critically important, facilitating customer interactions, enhancing the CX and fostering loyalty. It created a highly competitive payments market driven by 3 main categories of local payments (#APMs):

► 𝐌𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫 𝐆𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐬: ApplePay, Google Wallet, WeChat Pay, and PayPal

► 𝐃𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐌𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬: Over 45 distinct solutions (shown above), each with its own regional footprint, functional set-up, and owners impact the market, i.e.:

👉 Vipps — 78% in Norway 🇳🇴

👉 Swish — 78% in Sweden 🇸🇪

👉 MobilePay — 62% in Denmark 🇩🇰 & Finland 🇫🇮

👉 TWINT — 57% in Switzerland🇨🇭

👉 Payconiq International — 57% in Belgium 🇧🇪

👉 Bizum — 48% in Spain 🇪🇸

► 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐨𝐧-𝐰𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬: EPI, #digitaleuro, Wero & EMPSA European Mobile Payment Systems Association — aim to become viable competitors to payment schemes

Most of those local payment methods (60%) are usable across multiple channels (P2P, eCommerce and PoS), making them attractive and competitive against traditional card payments

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐏𝐌𝐬 — Reasons:

► 𝐅𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 — cashless payments are booming, supported by the EU regulatory environment

► 𝐀𝐛𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐏𝐌𝐬 — lack of competition

► 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 — bank endorsement ensuring a widespread market coverage and interoperability

► 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐏2𝐏 𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 — free P2P payments between users

► 𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 — promotional activities featuring brands and personalities coupled with special offers

► 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞-𝐀𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 — discounts, coupons, loyalty programs, FinTech services

Ultimately, the market will have 3 potential outcomes: a 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝 (i.e. Wero), 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢-𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝𝐬 or a 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭. It will be really interesting to see what happens 🚀

Source: Arkwright Consulting & Francesco Burelli

I highly recommend following my partner at Connecting the dots in payments... Arthur Bedel 💳 ♻️ for more great content like this one👌

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