Irvine, CA and Toronto, Ontario — March 25, 2022 – Boustead Securities, LLC (“Boustead”) pre-IPO client Newt Corporation (“Newt” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce its approval as a vendor to the State of Baja California Sur to provide a Payroll Lending Program to the employees of the state government and the public administration. Newt’s Lending-as-a-Service program will be one of the first in Mexico for integrated payroll lending within one mobile app. It features bill payment, gift cards, and Mastercard-labeled credit cards, in line with the recent Mexican legislation imposing digital regulation.
In addition to the vendor approval, Newt received a signed invitation to submit a proposal from the office of the Undersecretary of Administration as the top selected technology solution.
The public administration of Baja California Sur has over 6,000 employees in all five municipalities, with the main concentration of public employees in the state capital of La Paz.
Newt will provide a branded, white-label mobile app to all government employees, enabling the following services: auto-enrollment, digital KYC, and credit score building. Most importantly, Newt will provide employees with the benefit of direct payroll advance from their future paycheck, upon a single request, directly on their mobile phone. Newt may provide the needed fiscal transparency to the government by avoiding historical paper-intensive, inefficient administration processes. Additionally, each employee will have the opportunity to combine the app with a Mastercard-labeled credit card, jointly issued with Element Bank.
According to HR Ratings, a Mexican credit rating agency, the total amount in payroll lending in Mexico in Q2 2020 was above $3.4 billion USD with an average of 27% interest rate and less than 2.7% in bad credit.
Around 57% of the adult Mexican population had access to credit in 2018, with 39% of the adult population accessing informal credit (family or friends, pawn-shops, etc.) and just 31% accessing formal or institutional credit. Only 22% of adult Mexicans under 30 have access to formal credit, the majority of whom belong to the wealthier segment of the population. The sizable informal credit market in Mexico constitutes a clear opportunity for Newt, which is better positioned than traditional banks to onboard lower-income, underbanked, or unbanked Mexicans.
Sergio Maya Aleman, Newt’s CEO for Latin America, stated: “With this approval received from one Mexican state’s administration, we hope to set the trend for Newt to be adopted by other municipalities, with the ultimate goal of integrating a payroll lending program with LaaS mobile technology across the entire Mexican government. The digital integration process with Public Administration will bring enormous benefits in transparency and efficiency in a payroll lending business model.”
About Newt
Newt Corporation is a digital payment and financial services platform enabling enterprises to serve the large underbanked population in the Americas with digital financial products and services and access to credit. Newt provides a fairer, faster, accessible ecosystem that fills the credit accessibility gap and reshapes how businesses and consumers save, move money and conduct commerce. The Company’s financial ecosystem offers mobile and digital bill payments, cross-border money transfers, digital wallets, prepaid stored-value cards, and access to a large leading catalog of digital gift cards and subscription services. Newt’s omnichannel distribution and processing capability allow consumers to conveniently connect through mobile, web, point-of-sale and Newt branded electronic payment center kiosks located across a network of merchant locations. Newt is also bringing credit financing for small to medium-sized enterprises, payroll loans for consumers, credit cards, loan financing, and other credit services for those who lack access to traditional financing.
For more information, visit www.newtfinancial.com
About Boustead Securities, LLC
Boustead Securities, LLC is an investment banking firm that executes and advises on IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, capital raises and restructuring assignments in a wide array of industries, geographies and transactions, for a broad client base. Boustead’s core value proposition is the ability to create opportunity through innovative solutions and tenacious execution. With experienced professionals in the United States, Boustead’s team moves quickly and provides a broad spectrum of sophisticated financial advice and services. Boustead is a majority-owned subsidiary of Boustead & Company Limited, a diversified non-bank financial institution. For more information visit please visit: www.boustead1828.com