After finding success in Spain and Colombia, Pibank launches in Miami
Pibank, a subsidiary of Intercredit Bank, only recently planted its flag in Miami, but given its history and one tantalizing number, success seems likely.
First the number: Pibank is offering a high-interest savings account at 5.50% APR, a high-yield rate that would be difficult to match anywhere else in the state – or in the country, for that matter. No minimum balance is required, and there are no fees to open or maintain an account. (Like national household-name banks, Pibank offers savings accounts that are FDIC-insured up to $250,000.)
Then there’s the history. Pibank launched in Spain in 2018 and expanded to Colombia in 2022, just as global consumers were becoming more comfortable socking away their money via their laptops and phone apps, as opposed to relying on brick-and-mortar banks. Pibank debuted its Coral Gables headquarters in August (Intercredit was established in Miami in 1992) with Maria Peuriot as executive director for Pibank U.S. As a member of the founding team of Pibank in Spain and Colombia, she is quick to explain what Pibank is – and what it is not.
“We are the direct bank of Intercredit in the U.S. When I say direct bank, it’s very different from what you’d expect, which is [probably] an online bank,” she says. The distinction resides in the personal touch. “An online bank uses the best technology and it tends to offer every service to their clients, but on our end, although we use technology to reach our clients and to provide a service to them, when our clients face one of those moments of truth, or one of those pain points – whether it is sending us an e-mail or contacting us on the phone or through social media – we don’t use chatbots.” Instead, Pibank goes old school, with actual humans. “We have a team of US-based customer service representatives that takes care of the client,” she says. “We are dealing with people’s money, and that is something that we take very seriously.”
Given the youth of Pibank’s Miami outpost, the clientele is still evolving, but the bank is primarily attracting personal depositors. “We target individuals who already have had the experience of buying financial products online,” she says. “We don’t like to target our clients by age, but we do have a wide range… In Spain and Colombia, the people who have access to savings are older. But what we are experiencing here in the US – and again, we are new to the market – is that the level of savings that people have is probably higher than in other countries.
Therefore, I would say we could be looking at people between 25 and 65 years old.” The initial response to Pibank has been strong enough that customers are inquiring about future products. “Some people have already asked me what the next product is going to be,” Peuriot says. “This is something that makes us so different from our competitors. We don’t have a road map of which Pibank products should be developed in each country. We listen to what customers need.”
In Spain, for example, Pibank launched with payroll and checking accounts; saving accounts and CDs followed. Colombians wanted saving accounts, CDs, and personal loans. “It really depends on what the customer needs in this country,” Peuriot says, “but for sure, we will increase the number of available products.”
