GMB - What did it mean for OKTO to receive the award for Best Payment Platform?
Leonardo Chaves - This brought a lot of satisfaction, as it is recognition of our work in this search for excellence in the financial sector. Many say that payments are a commoditized product. We don't see it that way, especially in the iGaming market, because the volume, the financial flow is very high. OKTO handles around 20 million transactions per month.
This is not just a matter of technological capacity, but it is also about customer service, as clients often seek us out to help them in the process. An award like this is satisfactory proof that our work towards operational service excellence is on the right path.
How is OKTO positioning itself in the regulated sports betting market in Brazil? What is your focus from now on?
The regulated market brings a huge change for operators. Today we, payment companies, end up offering a flow outside the country. And the company's entire financial dynamics are abroad because we can't even make local payments due to the restrictions. After regulation, companies will become legal entities, with a de facto CNPJ and with a responsibility to take care of taxes, accounting, and investment. And we here have a financial dynamic of inflation, investment with interest rates, a complexity in the fiscal issue.
OKTO positions itself as going beyond payment, understanding the company's financial flow and its needs. Therefore, through our platform with a complete banking solution, with better tax dynamics, better investment solutions, all the structure that the financial team needs to carry out their transactions, we completely meet everything that the operator in Brazil needs. We also function as a specialist in the Brazilian market, already with know-how from the regulated sector in Europe, as working there we gain experience in an advisory format.
What are the biggest problems faced by customers that OKTO has solved?
There are two major issues on the market. The first happens during onboarding, where the user has to register. And the other always occurs during payment, as it is when the user leaves the platform to go to the bank. The process takes time. Concerned about this, we work to generate as little friction as possible and reduce the process from 7 steps to 2 or 3 and make life easier for the user, being much more intuitive and faster.
For onboarding along with payment, we introduced the pay and play solution, where we capture CPF information and facilitate the steps for both the operator and the customer, reducing friction. Our focus is always to meet their needs, ensuring an efficient financial solution with almost no obstacles.
Are the regulations and the new law positive for Brazil? Is OKTO already regulated, right?
We anticipated it due to all the regulatory movements since last year. We are regulated by central banks in some European countries and it will be no different here. We already came with the intention of being a company regulated by the Central Bank of Brazil, but with the movement in the betting market, we obviously accelerated this process and the quickest way we found was to make an acquisition here in the country. That's why we bought a company called U4C, approved by the Central Bank, which is a direct participant in Pix, that is, it has no intermediary.
By not having an intermediary, our agility, our technological latency is even better, with a much greater capacity, obviously with great responsibility for compliance, from a regulatory point of view. Due to this complexity, we will be much more prepared for the already regulated market. It is an obligation of the regulated sector, and as we have already worked towards this, we are ready.
Source: GMB Exclusive
