Marcos Galperín's firm will have to speed up --at the end of last year, Brazil's Newbank (one of its main competitors) announced that its Mexican subsidiary had requested a license to operate as a multiple banking institution. Meanwhile, London-based Revolut said it got its own license in April.

Mercado Pago, the fintech owned by Latin American e-commerce giant Mercado Libre, announced this Tuesday that it will begin a process in the coming months to obtain a banking license from Mexican authorities, seeking to become the country's largest digital bank.

At the end of last year, one of its main competitors, Brazil's Nubank, announced that its Mexican subsidiary had requested a license to operate as a multiple banking institution. Meanwhile, London-based Revolut said in April it obtained a banking license in Mexico, Latin America's second-largest economy behind Brazil.

"Today we offer services similar to those of traditional banking in a digital, inclusive and efficient way. Our millions of users see us as their digital bank. Now we want to formalize it and become the largest 100% digital bank in Mexico," said in a statement Pedro Rivas, general director of Mercado Pago in Mexico.

"We want to evolve to have a greater impact on Mexico's digital banking system. We are excited to begin this process before regulators because we have the technological infrastructure to reach where traditional banking did not reach before and expand our reach to offer more innovative and accessible products," Rivas added.

Currently, Mercado Pago has debit and credit cards, offers daily returns on the balance available in your digital account, provides personal loans and financing to SMEs, in addition to the option of receiving remittances.

The license would allow it to expand its product portfolio in addition to attract funding through checking accounts, savings accounts or fixed-term deposits to later place them in credit operations, such as commercial loans, mortgages and others.

In February, Iupana, a media outlet specialized in fintech in Latin America, had announced that Mercado Pago was evaluating becoming a bank.

Founded in 2003, Mercado Pago operates in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay, and processes more than 15 million transactions per day.