QUITO, December 20, 2025 — COONECTA, Ecuador’s leading transactional network serving financial institutions regulated by the Superintendencia de Economía Popular y Solidaria [SEPS], has partnered with BPC, a global leader in payment solutions, to accelerate nationwide digital transformation and advance financial inclusion.
Powered by BPC’s next-generation SmartVista platform, the initiative consolidates transactional and digital infrastructure across 90 affiliated credit unions and 75 member institutions, significantly reducing operational complexity while enabling access to modern financial services. These include international debit and credit cards, digital wallets, mobile payments, and remittance capabilities—bringing secure, scalable digital finance to millions of Ecuadorians, particularly in rural and underserved communities.
In an industry still constrained by legacy systems and fragmented technology stacks, COONECTA set out to make a decisive statement: the future of financial services in Ecuador will not be shaped solely by traditional banks or global fintechs, but by a technologically empowered cooperative sector. With a nationwide footprint spanning bill payments, digital wallets, and remittances, COONECTA required a modern, flexible platform capable of scaling rapidly while improving operational efficiency. SmartVista was selected for its adaptability, microservices-based architecture, and advanced functional capabilities.
BPC delivered a fully integrated, non-siloed digital core for COONECTA on SmartVista, unifying issuing, acquiring, and digital channels on a single modular platform. The rollout expands acceptance of internationally branded debit cards; enables multi-product debit and credit issuing with full lifecycle management tailored to cooperative institutions; introduces an e-commerce gateway for online merchant acceptance; and launches a modern digital wallet and mobile banking experience.
To protect the network’s high transaction volumes, BPC implemented real-time, omnichannel fraud prevention through SmartVista Fraud Management. The cloud-ready architecture ensures rapid scalability and ongoing compliance with international standards, including 8-digit BIN migration, 3-D Secure, secure provisioning, and tokenization.
The transformation delivers strategic optionality. COONECTA can now launch new products faster, unlock additional revenue streams, and expand into previously inaccessible verticals—most notably acquiring and merchant payments—enabling open-loop digital acceptance for merchants in rural areas where cash has traditionally dominated.
The initiative also enabled COONECTA to introduce credit card issuing capabilities across its network and fundamentally reshape how cooperative institutions aggregate and diversify their service portfolios. For many members, adding credit products to existing offerings—including debit, prepaid, wallets, and digital channels—represents their first meaningful step into fully digital financial services. By eliminating the burden of managing costly, fragmented systems, member institutions now access the same advanced tools as major banks, while retaining full control, reducing cost-to-serve, and accelerating time-to-market.
Tomas Adolfo Lara Tenorio, Latin America Solution Consultant at BPC NALA, said:
“This partnership marks a new era of financial modernisation in Ecuador—one rooted in collaboration rather than fragmentation. With SmartVista, COONECTA is future-proofing its operations while expanding secure digital services to every corner of the country.”
COONECTA’s strength lies in its deep presence in regions where traditional banking infrastructure remains limited. Many affiliated cooperatives operate in small towns and rural communities where digital services have historically been difficult to deploy. Leveraging SmartVista, COONECTA now provides these institutions with cost-effective, fully integrated access to card issuing, mobile-first banking, acquiring, and remittance services—all from a single, modern platform.
Ramiro Baldeón, CEO of COONECTA, commented: “Together with BPC, we are delivering a transformation that strengthens our mission to empower the cooperative movement and the communities we serve. This partnership provides modern technological tools to scale inclusive digital financial services from a single, intelligent core—creating real and lasting impact.”
Mariana Posada, Chief Operating Officer at BPC NALA, added: “This is execution at scale. Through close collaboration and deep expertise across both teams, we have established a modern infrastructure that balances efficiency, compliance, and inclusion—from the heart of Quito to the most remote corners of Ecuador.”
https://thecooperator.news/ica-raises-alarm-over-ecuadors-new-law-affecting-cooperatives/
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