COINK

Grupo empresarialSo that culture from savings reach all of Latin America

COINK:

PROMOTING INCLUSION WITH A PURPOSE

Imagine a world in which finance is not cold, distant, difficult, and intimidating for the majority of the population, specially to those with limited access to education and even fewer opportunities. A society where people smile when they think about finance, where their financial partner is more of a friendly acquaintance rather than a usurer predator. A relationship between financial entity and client where trust, good communication, and the financial well-being of both do not depend on a toxic relationship. Wouldn’t that be a place where many people would gladly live in that financial world, and as a result substantially improve the situation of their families, cities and their countries?

That’s the world Coink is trying to build: A Specialized Society in Deposits and Electronic Payments (Sedpe for its acronym in Spanish) founded in Colombia with the objective of contributing to the development of the country and Latin America with a history and vision as noble as it is ambitious. Financial inclusion has achieved an important place in the economic growth, development, and social equity agenda. Colombia’s growth has not been insignificant: by the end of 2020, official figures showed that 31 million adults, around 80.1% of the population has at least one financial product. Despite progress, the efforts have not been enough since Colombians still do not make proper use of financial products, a wide disparity prevails between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’, and the disconnection and mistrust towards the traditional financial system still persists (see chart). Coink was created to revolutionize the way Latin Americans relate with finance. It is a company that is not only aware of the challenges involved in achieving true financial inclusion in the region, but also has disruptive strategies and innovative proposals to tackle the root of the problem.

FINANCIAL INCLUSION IN COLOMBIA: AN INCOMPLETE TASK.

There are still three fundamental barriers to financial development in the country

BIAS OF FINANCIAL PRODUCTS TOWARDS CREDITS:

Savings should be the central axis of every relationship between people and the financial system. It is the habit of saving that generates the discipline of having healthy personal finances. Credit must be seen as a second step, a complement and catalyst to reach a specific objective. Nevertheless, in the eagerness to penetrate society with any formal financial product, in Colombia we have forgotten the genesis, we have forgotten about savings. In the country there are more credit products than savings products. Today there are 25 million active savings accounts, 28 million consumer credit accounts, and 40 million accounts of other credit tools.

millions

active savings accounts

INCLUSION TO THOSE ALREADY INCLUDED

Even though talking about inclusion covers the extremes, we frequently fall into the trap of talking about averages that disguise less attractive realities. Financial inclusion is no exception. It is

said that in Colombia financial inclusion reaches

80.1%, but who comprises that 80%? And, more importantly, who is the remaining 20%?

The following map shows the penetration of saving products by political departments. While in Bogota there are 0.89 savings products per person, in Vaupes, the region with the worst savings indicators, there are only 0.12 savings products per person. It is eight times more

feasible to save through formal instruments in the nation’s capital than in the remote regions

of the country. It is therefore likely that the 20% of Colombians without financial products are concentrated among the less fortunate and therefore those who need them the most.

millions

consumer credit accounts

FEAR AND LACK OF KNOWLEDGE PERSISTS

The World Bank has a different methodology to understand financial inclusion advances. For Global Findex’s Database, people over 15 years old are asked if in the last 12 months they have used an account in a financial institution. In 2017, only 47% of Colombians surveyed reported having made use at least one financial account, data that contrasts with the 80.1% of Colombians who according to the financial report of the “Banca de las Oportunidades” have a financial product. The data is even more discouraging among women, young people, and people in rural areas (see figure). The discrepancy shows a reality that is as sad as it is inescapable, the reason is that Colombians do not trust in financial institutions, and do not

know nor realize the importance of having their products and their solutions are not part of our daily lives.

The percentage of respondents who report having an account (by themselves or together with someone else) at a bank or another type of financial institution (see definition for financial institution account) or report personally using a mobile money service in the past 12 months (see definition for mobile money account).

All Women Rural Area 40% More Economically Challeneged

Youth (15-24 Yrs)

THE HISTORY: A YESTERDAY, AND A TODAY CENTERED IN SAVINGS

More than 5 years ago, three young Colombians embarked in the task of promoting financial inclusion in the country. Conscious of the challenges due to the lack of opportunities of so many that live with so little, and understanding the power of the inclusion financial tools, they decided to create a financial institution that was approachable, human, and fun (yes, fun).

This meant to change finance from its roots, to innovate and dare to create something radically different aimed at revolutionizing the financial world. It is under these conditions that the emblematic piggy banks or “Oinks” emerged: a friendly and easily recognized device of the financial world. The “Oinks” were created to become Coink’s genesis and for the entire world, which is what these three people wanted to create.

The “Oinks” are giant piggy banks that transform coins into digital money in real time so that everyone can save with a smile. They are unique savings machines (with patent pending) conceived, designed, and produced in Colombia. They act as the bridge between cash currency and the digital world, thus closing the gap which still exists between the lack of knowledge and adoption/ acceptance of digital money.

The product works like this: you download the application and open a Coink account in less than three minutes. At the end of the registration progress, a small digital piggy is born, destined to grow alongside each client as it matures financially. The entire product is designed using behavioral science and game mechanics to strengthen, through emotional dynamics, the financial health of users. With its Oinks, Coink is opening the door to the financial system for hundreds of thousands of Colombians who can enter, activate, and save in a regulated entity for as little as fifty ($50.00) Colombia pesos (around $0.13 USD). Coink, with its Oinks, is redefining the country’s financial inclusion. This is how Coink began to transform savings into the central aspect of every user’s relationship with their finances, the beginning and the foundation on which its other financial products are built. Coink’s product offering grew to accompany their users to take advantage of the benefits of understanding and putting to good use the financial system. The products are focused on generating healthy savings habits, collaborative finances, trust mechanisms, and tools to promote the development of wellbeing are part of the portfolio of products offered.

Financial Organization and financial education: In Coink, users have at their fingertips multiple tools to turn savings into a catalyst for purpose. Goals

WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED TO DATE:

80,6%

of those users make their first deposit in the same month they download the app.

Over 30,000

users.

93%

of users have made at least one transaction on Coink.

AND WHAT WE WILL BE ABLE TO REACH:

users by end of 2021. users by end of 2022.

Taking our solution to other destinations in Latin America.

and coffers can be created to organize money and reach dreams through healthy financial habits and discipline. In addition, the application has resources to educate users financially, achieving a unique intersection between education and financial health.

The debit card and the Coink Bazaar: Saving is not the end, it’s the path. At Coink, this is the “First Commandment”. One of the biggest challenges is to generate mechanisms so users can achieve their dreams through smart spending. In the Coink app they have access to a feature called The Bazar, which includes an e-commerce focused on wellness. On the other hand, the debit card is a natural trust generator; in case of any eventuality, Coink offers its users the possibility of using their savings digitally or in the more than 200,000 dataphones in the country.

Communities and Co-Savings: Social finance is a world with immense transforming potential that has been little explored in Colombia. To correct this neglect, Coink created its “Communities” which are collaborative spaces for groups of people to achieve joint goals. They are an important pillar in Coink’s solution and are complemented by co-saving, which consists of saving among several participants and becomes a tool for interested parties (a mother with her child, an employer with his employee, or an organization with its beneficiaries) to collectively achieve a common goal.

THE VISION: TOWARDS A TOMORROW OF CHALLENGES AND INNOVATION

Coink has the ambition to reach 150,000 users by the end of 2021 and reach the landmark of growing to one million users in 2022. To reach this goal, its strategy includes not only new financial products covering credit, investment and alternative products (cryptocurrency– see history in diagram 3), but also expanding geographically in the country to remind new Latin American markets the importance of saving.

Coink wants to accompany the Latin American base of the pyramid in the pursuit and achievement of their dreams. It wants to amaze with its products and empower all the users with transparency. Coink is here to make all of us rethink the world of finance.

AT THE FOREFRONT OF FINANCE: CRYPTOCURRENCIES AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE.

Part of Coink’s future is the revolutionary cryptocurrency market, and to reiterate its commitment to innovation Coink has

participating in the pilot of “Superintendencia

Financiera de Colombia” (Colombia’s financial regulator). The pilot’s goal is to give space to this industry in the Colombian territory in a responsible way. Coink and Banexcoin, a Peruvian cryptocurrency exchange were selected by the “Superintendencia” to be part of this new alliances that make up this pilot. This is just the first step in a new range of services and products based on the latest technologies that Coink will continue to bring to its costumers.