In A Time of Need, A Woman Rises To Disrupt Fintech In Puerto Rico

The past several years have represented a trying time for the island of Puerto Rico. Between the growing government debt and passage of Hurricane María, many have been left to wonder what will happen to the island. To mitigate this, some have been stepping up to come up with new solutions to reach new markets and, as a result, stimulate the Puerto Rican economy.

One notable leader in this endeavor is Mariel Arraiza, Managing Director of the company Eloan, a financial-services startup, and Banco Popular’s fintech arm. They offer secure installment loans to customers in their US market through their digital platform. Their online platform provides a seamless and clear user experience for its users to acquire micro-loans up to $35,000. As a result of this ease of use, they cater to younger markets, including millennials, entrepreneurs, and female heads of households.

Arraiza has risen to not only be an important player in financial services in Puerto Rico but also to represent women in fintech as a whole. To date, women represent less than 30% of staff in this sector– a number that is even lower for Latina women. I sat down to speak with Arraiza about her role as a female leader in fintech, and her vision for building out Eloan in Puerto Rico

“As a result of the financial crisis, we started to think of creative ways to reach new markets in the United States,” she said. “We knew that leveraging and rebooting Eloan’s fintech platform would help us reach new customers in the mainland, and particularly millennials, since younger generations are generally not stepping into bank branches.”

Arraiza, an employee at Banco Popular for over 18 years, first started her career working on several projects within the bank, including introducing customer callbacks and launching the first e-account in Puerto Rico. Later on, she went on to help lead the marketing department and launched the social media channels for the bank – both endeavors that have been very successful.

With Eloan, Arraiza is working toward reaching new markets from the island. The team sees this as a great product for the recent diaspora of creditworthy Puerto Ricans who need support. Yet, they also know Eloan is bigger than that, and envision their services being used by many creditworthy Americans who never thought about borrowing to finance their needs and dreams. “My goal is to continue being creative and creating great user experiences for our customers,” she said. “We recognize Eloan’s potential in opening new doors for the bank in the digital space.”

Eloan is unique in that it is a startup that operates as a separate business within Banco Popular – a strategy that allows Arraiza’s team to work nimbly. Arraiza explains that, from the beginning, they’ve operated under that mentality, and are very agile in their work. “Even though we’re part of a large bank, there are only 10 of us running Eloan,” she said. “We do everything related to legal, marketing, business intelligence, and product development. It is its own micro-universe.”

In our conversation, we explored the question of whether other companies in Puerto Rico should pursue similar innovative approaches. She explained that it is essential that we evolve our mentality and that all companies in Puerto Rico should work toward this way of thinking.

“There has to be a collective effort throughout,” she noted. “At Banco Popular, we have had several initiatives to motivate not only companies but individuals to pursue creating new solutions. The bank started the Startup Popular program, where we invited people with great ideas for coaching sessions, and eventually awarded flexible loans to promising businesses. That’s one of our initiatives, but there is a lot that can be done.”