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Kueski, a Mexican fintech for personal loans and buy now pay later (BNPL), was recently recognized by the Comisión Nacional para la Protección y Defensa de los Usuarios de Servicios Financieros (Condusef) with the Insignia Compromiso en la Atención a las Personas Adultas Mayores.
With this, the Guadalajara-based fintech becomes the first SOFOM E.N.R (Sociedad Financiera de Objeto Múltiple, Entidad No Regulada) and the first 100% digital institution within the technology industry to receive this distinction.
Kueski is taking action to give seniors access to financial technologies. Cecilia Álvarez, director of compliance and internal control at Kueski, said in an interview with Contxto that since last year they have carried out some changes so that this segment has more accessibility to their products.
The executive shared that only one in 10 seniors use digital means to manage their finances compared to nine out of 10 between 18 and 29 years old.
Álvarez explained that they have granted around 200,000 loans to this sector and that approximately 20% of Kueski’s users are seniors. He pointed out that in Mexico there are around 18 million senior citizens, who represent almost 14% of the population.
To avoid fraud specifically in this sector, Kueski has implemented some additional authentication factors so that no one can access the personal accounts of seniors without their consent, as this segment of the population is sometimes vulnerable even by family members or caregivers, explained Álvarez.
“On the customer service side, we made many adjustments so that when a senior citizen is automatically identified in our systems, he or she does not have to wait as long as someone else would have to, they have a priority issue, they will be attended to more quickly,” said Álvarez.
The customer service team received very specific training in terms of language, patience and empathy, said Álvarez. There was a structural change in communication with seniors to address their concerns.
Alvarez emphasized that Kueski has always been focused on inclusion in general for the underserved sectors of the population and they are constantly looking for the necessary means to reduce those important gaps as a society.
Other platforms similar to Kueski were contacted by Contxto to find out if they had any specific actions to integrate seniors into their digital financial services, and although they work to democratize access to credit for the general population, they do not yet have concrete initiatives for this segment, as they have started to do for the female population, for example.
From microcredit to BNPL
Kueski was founded in 2012 with an offer of online personal microcredit, the startup, which was a pioneer in the fintech ecosystem in Mexico evolved a few years ago to also offer credit under the buy now pay later format. Today, Alvarez shared, the BNPL business is already as important as the online credit business for Kueski.
Last year Kuesky Pay, the BNL branch, was integrated as a payment method on Amazon and that meant exponential growth. “A short time later we reached one million transactions with Amazon directly,” Alvarez boasted.
2024 was a year of growth driven by this alliance. By October they already had 20 million loans deposited, which meant they doubled their growth in 18 months. To date, Kueski has already surpassed 25 million loans deposited.
Among the objectives for 2025 is to expand the user base, especially in underserved segments (although for the moment they are focusing only on Mexicans, they do not yet serve foreigners living in the country). They are also working on the implementation of educational programs and improvements in accessibility to make it easier for customers to manage their finances, in addition to strengthening their marketing campaigns.
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