The Power of Strategic Partnerships with Marcelo Theodoro from Intermex

Speaker A: And these immigrants who come to us, they don't have access to bank accounts, they don't have access to cards. Imagine that you have to leave your kid behind and you are here and don't even know if the money is going to get there. There is a huge opportunity for us together to tackle this financial inclusion.

Speaker B: Hey, everybody. Welcome to a really fun episode of FinTech Brews. I'm Nikki Rode. Welcome. Welcome to this fun episode. We have a very special guest, but let's not forget my friend, Eric Cotton. Okay. And, and today we are joined with our friend Marcelo from Intermex. Marcelo, welcome.

Speaker A: Thank you, guys.

Speaker B: Um, start off by introducing yourself a little bit more. What do you do for Intermex? And then let's jump right into the Intermex journey. Uh, what's different about Intermex and, um, what's the mission?

Speaker A: Sure. Thank you so much for having me here. I'm Marcelo Todor. I'm chief Digital Product, Product and Marketing Officer for Intermax. As you can see, based on my accent, I'm not from M, South Dakota. I'm Brazilian. I moved to US ten years ago. Um, currently I'm responsible for everything that is, quote, unquote, new business for the company. So running the business that we have, but trying to have conversations like this to define and design what is the future of the company. So I think we have a lot of things to talk about that.

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Um, the first thing that jumps into my mind is what makes Intermex different? Um, what's your core mission? What's the core mission of the company?

Speaker A: That's a very good question. Intermex is different because we are for 31 years now serving the Latin community in the United States. So basically our core business is to help people who are working in the United States or leave the United States to send money cross border. So what we see is that a lot of countries in Latin America has a huge piece of their gdp, depending on what we call remittance, right? So people who cross the border, come here, work, send money back. Some of them go back to take advantage of this money when they're there because they invested in houses or small business, et cetera. Some of them remain here but still have families there they support. So Intermex is doing that. Intermex, uh, is a company built by Latinos, for Latinos. So if you look at our, um, demographics, or social demographics, whatever you Want to call 90% of our company is Latino first generation or second generation of Latinos. Um, this creates, I think, a, uh, Better understanding of these needs. Because once you are ah, an immigrant yourself, you can understand the pains that these people go through. So we are going to talk about that at some point. But politics on the side, because being an immigrant is not easy.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: And these immigrants who come to us, they don't have access to bank accounts, they don't have access to cards, they don't have access to any uh, I would say financial instruments that help them do what they have to do. So that's one thing that makes us different. The second thing is that we are very careful to guarantee that this money gets there. So in 31 years we never ever fail to pay a wire. Even the moment the company was a small player that was struggling financially, wireless, we always paid the wires. Not even one situation that we did. Of course there are technical mistakes, but we are very quick to fix that. So there is a level of trust in our brand that I think help us making business. And I think third is the fact that we are a very um, consumer oriented company. So for example, if you call our call center, somebody, a human being, not ivr or a robot or a, ah, bot, whatever you want to call as well, uh, is going to pick up the call. A Latin speaker person or a Spanish speak person is going to pick up the phone in up to 4 seconds and support you. Right. So in a Mother's Day, if you call one of our competitors, you're going to be 40 minutes, listen some stupid music instead of addressing your problem when your mom is on the other side waiting for that money to pay a doctor's bill or to pay uh, uh, the rent or to buy food, you are not really in the mood to be there. Right. So we invest a lot in call center to be sure that. So when you call that somebody's there and is really solving a problem. If I have to summarize in three things, I would say these are the three most important things we have.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: And can you talk a little bit about the scale, Marcelo? That's one of the things, you know, as we've expanded our partnership, just the uh, how, how large Intermex is and in the remittance space and you know, how much funds are getting sent, you know, to your, your corridors. Could you talk a little bit about that?

Speaker A: Sure. Um, we are going through some tough times now given the immigration policies that we are facing. But historically Intermax represents 20% market share of the top five corridors in Latin America. Mexico is the biggest corridor in the world. So we can round up, uh, I would say around $100 billion more or less flow to Latin America. I would say 60, 50% of that is to Mexico. Uh, and we always had 20% of that market. We also have 20% of Dominican Republic, even more Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras. So we move more or less, I would say $30 billion per year, uh, something around 50 million transactions per year. Um, most of them are from our retail network. We can talk about that later. And I would say something like 5 to 10% is from digital channels. Um, that said, we serve around 6 million people in the United States. Uh, and we disburse this money to more 6 million people in the Latin American culture. So it's a bare scale business as of today. Um, and I believe there is still a lot to grow. I think when you see that the Latin population in few years is going to represent stuff like 100 million people in the United States, second, third generation, whatever, there is still a lot of business for us to do and of course to go to new countries, all of these corridors.

Speaker B: Yeah, what I love so much about your guys footprint is it's deep, caring and you have a mission first mindset of what this is all about. As a matter of fact, um, if it's okay, I'd love to highlight one of the videos that you guys recently did. Um, there's a series of videos on YouTube that are Intermex stories and one of them highlights the reach, um, here in America of 73% of U.S. migrant workers. Um, or U.S. agricultural workers is a better way to say it, are immigrants. And so, um, let's watch this short video that will complement Intermex's journey.

Speaker A: Um,

Speaker B: Okay, so that's inspiring. Um, Marcelo, what lit a fire in you from a digital strategy to make that series of videos to bring those stories to life.

Speaker A: That video made a lot of people cry in the office. So when we first launched it, we put everybody in that big meeting room and we gave popcorn and put a big screen and make like a premiere. And I remember like half of the meeting room was crying after, after the video. The idea of the video was uh, to connect our investors to the reality. So the truth is our investors, people who own our stocks, they are in a very comfortable office in Wall street, you know, criticizing or supporting immigration policies without not even knowing what happens. So the idea was to say, hey buddy, you are there buying or not buying our stocks. I think most important is that you understand what we are talking about. And then we try to go to real farms. Nothing there is scripted that is real word we went to a farm at 4:30am M. We wait them to arrive and we track their life during that day. Then we travel to Guatemala, um, and we recorded different locations in Guatemala where people are taking advantage of that money that they received. So it's a true, true, true story. Um, I don't know how much Wall street care or felt emotional about it, but I think even for us, it gave a lot of people in the office a little bit more proud of what they're doing.

Speaker B: That's right.

Speaker A: They really didn't have that perception. Oh, when I stamp this paper or I send this mail or I produce this PowerPoint or I support a client, I'm not supporting a remittance. I'm supporting somebody who is there in the line on a Friday waiting the money to arrive. Because if the money doesn't arrive, there is no food on Saturday. Right. So the idea was really to build this connection between business and people, which

Speaker B: I think most people, not all people, but most people want to connect with their work. Most people want to know that what they're doing is providing value and for central payments. And the Intermex partnership, it's really important because through the extension of what you all do, we support that from a back office, uh, perspective and kind of power a lot of that fund's movement. And so, um, it spoke a lot to us. I know we showed just a short clip, but the longer video, uh, is available as well, and it's really powerful.

Speaker A: Did you cry when you watched it?

Speaker B: Did I cry? Do you think I cried?

Speaker C: She cries quite a bit quite often, so I'm gonna assume she did. I did.

Speaker B: I did. I, um, think this is about humanity and it's about a lifelo line. Um, what did the 700,000 temporary, uh, visas were issued for these workers in 2024. And so these are, you know, people trying to come and make a better life for, uh, themselves and support our industry. And this is a mutual thing.

Speaker C: Yeah. And I think it's a good segue. Marcela, why don't we talk a little bit about our current partnership and, uh, the product offering that we have in partnership and, and the, you know, just how that has transcended, uh, the lives of some of the workers when they come over, how they get paid, not having to, you know, live in a cash world, maybe explain about what their life was like before and then after, you know, Intermex produced the, the payroll partnership we have.

Speaker A: That's a very good question. One thing that I learned, and I never thought about it before, Is that when an immigrant comes to us, they have three priorities. The first is to find a place to live. The second is to buy a phone. And the third is to have access to some financial service. And I'm, um, not talking about remittance like it's a uh, status symbol for them to have a bank account or to have a card because they never had that when they were there. So one of the important things that we are doing is that first we are checking this 30 box in the achievement list of those immigrants. Second, I think today we live in a digital society, right? I think particular three of us is very unlikely that you don't buy 56, 70% of your things online. If you do not have a card, you are excluded from this world. You cannot buy something from Amazon, you cannot order Uber, you cannot order doordash that I know is one of your clients. You cannot have access to any of these things if you don't have a electronic payment method. So while we are generating some level of better operations for the, for the farmer, what we're really doing is to include in these people in a digital economy, in a digital society that they are not part today. So that I think connects what Nick said, that is the value and the pleasure and the love that you have for your job, knowing that these people can access things that they never had. From our business perspective, it also enables the remittance business to, to go online, right? So why is very important for us, the retail is reasonable to expect that in time people are going to use more and more digital channels to send uh, remittance back home and then they need electronic payment as well. So what we have to build together is a product that is very seamless experience for consumers that works, that we offer the same level of customer care that I talked before and most importantly that we can expand the penetration of this product. Imagine somebody working a farm and getting a bunch of dollar bills at the end of the day or a check. Doesn't seem like modern society to me. And if you get a check, I don't know how much you guys know it probably know, I don't know if everybody was watching, is you go with the check. Let's say that you make thousand dollars and we go cash this check. You already lose 5 to 10% of that face amount, right? So you work at, I don't know, 20 days, two days go to the guy who is just, you know, exchanging a check with you. That's cruel. Like imagine two days, two full days picking up strawberries in Florida. Or whatever under, I don't know, 110 degrees. And you know that this two days is just to get your paycheck at the end of the month. That's ridiculous. Right? So, um, I hope that employers understand the importance of that. There is a transition moment, I would say, when you move from something that you've been doing for 30 years to a new way to pay, uh, employees, but you're not doing a favor to the farmer or to Intermex or to central payments, you are really doing something valuable for that employee that is there working hard to get that paycheck. Makes sense.

Speaker C: Absolutely.

Speaker B: It's beautiful. I wonder, um, are there any particular customer stories that you can share that have stood out to you about how the payroll card has really, um, I mean, you hit on the check cashing fee, and we all know what the fee is for and all that stuff. But meanwhile, with the payroll card, what are some customer stories that have stood out to you? How lives have been improved.

Speaker A: I have a good story, but it's not with the pay card. Can I say yes?

Speaker B: Of course.

Speaker A: So I don't know if. Good. I'm sorry. M. I have a story. Good. You guys heard at the end. Uh, so there was this younger girl, I would say around 25, and she came to us and she sent a remittance and didn't work. We had some problem that day, so we tried to understand and we reached out to her, blah, blah, blah, blah, and she told her a story. So the story was that she was one of three sisters, and she had a daughter and her mom, and the daughter had some health issues, I don't know exactly, some level of disability, but she did not have an option to be there. So she came to United States, and she was here, like, for four years already, and she was the one sending money back. So when we had a problem with that remittance and try to understand, okay, we are going to make an extra remittance to help her. But the fact that she was here by herself and the family literally didn't have food, if that remittance didn't get there that day, they wouldn't have how to eat. And we thought disabled. I don't know if the correct term, but with, uh, a girl with disability and an older mom take care of the girl and the sisters, that emphasizes to me earlier when I joined the company, how much the remittance is important. And as a father, we always talk about that, how much I. I'm connected with my son. Imagine that you have to leave Your kid behind and you are here and don't even know if the money is going to get there. That must be painful. Like it must be really, really tough.

Speaker B: Terrible.

Speaker A: So that's one story that when I joined, I think was three, four months of the company really made me think, okay, this is something else. I'm not here just for the, for the, for the money. And then we help this lady and the money arrived there and we give an extra remittance to help her, et cetera. So this was one of the stories that made us think about the video and try to understand how uh, it is important and how people really need that money.

Speaker B: Yeah, Eric, I know Intermex has been a long standing customer for central payments and for, for you kind of going back early on. Um, what, what makes us. So we're expanding some, some products with Intermex, um, working on future strategies and stuff. What makes that important work for you?

Speaker C: Well, I think you know, knowing that we contribute in our small way to you know, the, the ease of allowing folks to move money cross borders. So you know, obviously we've been as you mentioned, partners for probably upwards of eight years now, which is uh, in the fintech space, in the payment space is a lifetime. It's a marriage, it's a long marriage, ups and downs for sure, which we can openly admit. I think it'd be kind of strange if there wasn't but uh, the evolution of the partnership and the product, I think to Marcelo touched on it. But now again workers are coming to uh, use the pick strawberries in Florida. They now get consistent electronic pay, you know, weekly or bi weekly, which in turn helps them using the, you know, the digital interface that Intermex has to be able to get paid and can very quickly, you know, within minutes, hours have those funds, you know, to their family in seconds, yeah, seconds. It's you know, get a notification, my pay is hit. You feel good about the, not only the hard work you've been doing and now you know, share that family can eat family to eat, pay medical bills, pay cell phone bills, pay all the bills that they need to. So it's um, it's, you know, again it's a, it's a close partnership but it's, it's one of the more material and meaningful ones that we have just because of the use case and eliminating any barriers that exist between money moving, you know, to the employee and then eventually cross border. It's ah, it always makes you feel good.

Speaker A: Yeah, I can, I would like to talk a little bit about that because I think, particularly in the fintech world, was a very good example of resilience in both sides. Right. I think, as I always say about this marriage, we were married for a few years. We decided to, you know, divorce and take our different path. And I think our colleague was here, hidden behind the camera. Zach, who was a very, uh, resilient guy trying to make things work. And for me, as I deal with a lot of partners and vendors every day, one thing that stood out was that even when we announced it to you guys that we would take another path, Central Payments remain providing the best service that you could do at that point. Right. So a lot of guys, when they say, hey, I don't want to make business anymore, they just say, okay, I feel I going to move forward with my life. I don't want to partner. And I think central payments, and I'm very straightforward guys, you know, um, Central payments keep doing the job the best they can. And I think the first opportunity that we have to reengage, we re engage in a much better way. So for me, that was also a good example because you can lose a client, not necessarily lose the relationship at that point. Right. So that, that was a unique thing. I never had seen this type of break a relationship and re. Engage in a much better way in the corporate world. That was one of the things.

Speaker B: So, Marcelo, why. Why did you re engage?

Speaker A: I would say first, at the end of the first journey, we could see at least an attempt to do things differently. I think that was, in my words to Zach, that back then was unfortunately, uh, it's too late. Right. But I see that second, the most important thing, you guys didn't drop the ball, right. Things keep working and evolving as it was supposed to be. And I think when we re engage and it was a lunch that we had together, I think everybody was very, uh, honest about acknowledging that things were not okay and saying, now it's going to be different because we have this, this and that. Give us a chance. You are willing to take the risk. I remember Eric said, hey, if things don't work, we are going to pay you back. Xyz because we understand that we are putting energy and effort on both sides. So, um, I really, I'm really happy that we took this path to engage. And again, kudos to Zach. I think the relationship management was the key thing. Of course now, thanks God, everything is working well, the product is great, et cetera, et cetera. But what was the make or break back then was the relationship management in the essence of the word right. You guys were able to manage the relationship with us in a way that I think was different than normally. And I'm not a guy who makes compliments. So tomorrow we fight against.

Speaker B: So wait, three compliments for Zach in one episode? I don't know, guys. That's like, take me a little uncomfortable.

Speaker A: I'm trying to hire Zach for years. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Speaker C: And I'll interject as well, because I think the, you know, when Marcelo touched on the three things that make intermex different early on, you know, a lot of that rubbed off because when you're rubbed off on us, when you think about the importance of every single cent moving quickly and accurately, you know, during. During the. The break, you know, it it. Their level of execution, it it. One payment getting late means maybe you missed the wire cutoff day for that time. So I think the. It really re centered our team and re grounded everybody in the partnership that, you know, one error or two hours late can mean. You know, I think the example we kept using, they were baby there on a Friday, but it didn't get there. You know, if, if there was a delay in the payroll hitting and uh, all. So then now no food Friday afternoon, they have to pick it up Monday morning because of a, you know, an hour delay. So it, the. The focus on precise execution kind of reinvigorated us as well. Of what the, you know, what the downside, what happens if you don't execute on time promptly and accurately 100% of the time.

Speaker A: And I would say it's a lot about people too. I think, um, I'm here because we have a good relationship. I feel comfortable that if I had a problem, I can call you or you or Zach at any time and I'm going to be supported. Right. I think, uh, the difference between making business with companies our side and with our mindset versus make business with those big companies out there is that if I have a problem Saturday, nobody at, I don't know, big payments networks are working on Saturdays. You can send your email is going to go to a black hole there. Maybe somebody on Monday afternoon is going to see here. We can just call each other, we can just text each other and the solution is going to be provided we are a business that runs on Friday, Saturdays and Sunday. So there is no option them solving the problems during the day. Most of the our clients, our common clients, consumers, they get their paychecks on Friday end of the day.

Speaker B: That's right.

Speaker A: So if we have a problem, we need Friday end of the day. To solve because the guy say, hey, I need to go to the truck to go to Omar and bring me to Omar is leaving at 5:30. If the car doesn't work, what do I do? Wait for the next Friday? So I think this human interaction, this human dynamic is very important for our business and we appreciate what you guys do for us.

Speaker B: So I think it's a good um, transition into. We talked about the payroll card, how that works, um, maybe lean into what's next for our partnership. Uh, chat about that.

Speaker C: Yeah, I mean I'll talk a little bit. And then Marcelo, we've got uh, again the Intermex consumer base. You talk about 6 million people and there's a lot of opportunity from financial services perspective. I know you guys have your own or have other products not financially related. But uh, so there, there's the, the partnership on your, your existing consumer base, but also their central payments consumer base. You know, we, we manage, you know, millions of cards of, across multiple banks. And uh, a lot of those, those products and programs that we're managing are looking for a solution where they can have easy access to remit funds cross borders. So you know, excited to talk a little bit about what our future looks like and uh, maybe you want to touch on your remittance as a service optioning and how can, how can we partner, you know, and deepen that our partnership.

Speaker A: Yeah, I would bring to, to a higher level first. Right. Uh, when you look at this Latin population in United States is very reasonable to say that most of them don't have access to financial services at all. Right. So they are not welcome at a J.P. morgan branch in Fifth Avenue. They are not. So there is a huge opportunity for us together to tackle this financial inclusion. Right. How can we bring any kind of financial services to these people through a card solution or through something else. But they are there willing to get some uh, level of financial services support that they don't have today. So as you all said, I think we cover millions of people. You guys serve millions of people. How can we connect our services and bring them financial uh, service. So this is one thing that we can explore through your partners and through uh, Intermex. The second piece is wire itself. And that's a very tricky conversation for the industry. But I believe that the remittance is not going to be a full business for most of the companies in few years. It's going to be a feature that multiple players, banks, um, even delivery companies can offer to their consumers. Right. So the same way that you open an app and you have a loyalty feature or you have a whatever, ah, um, message feature, you're going to have a remittance feature. So when we talk about Wire as a service, for those who don't know, is the ability to deliver our technology to other companies that can deliver, that serves to a final consumer. Right. So, uh, I think we have a huge, huge potential in front of us that Intermax and Central Payments can partner on the technology side and can offer that service as a feature to any other company that can offer that. Right. So if you receive your salary from the employer A in your app and you have to send that money back home, the best user experience we can offer is just press a button and once you press the bottom, that money goes away. Right. Once you press the button, that remittance is initiated instead of downloading another app, going to another place and creating another account and putting another payment method, et cetera. So if we think about connecting all the dots and offering a great experience, I think again, Central Payments and Intermex can definitely do that together.

Speaker C: Yeah. And I think, you know, uh, the powered by Intermex example, giving them, you know, inserting a brand that, you know, that demographic or that use they trust is of utmost importance to, to most consumers.

Speaker A: Yes, yes, yes. I hope you can make it happen. Agree. Are you going to support Kazniki?

Speaker B: Yes, yes. Committed. Um, by the way, I'm the only person at this table that doesn't speak a lick of Spanish. So I think it would be a good idea to do a side Spanish segment.

Speaker A: Not Spanish, Portuguese.

Speaker B: Oh, Portuguese. Um, you speak Portuguese, Eric?

Speaker C: I don't.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker C: And my Spanish is limited. The answer is C. C, That's C.

Speaker A: That's what the practice. Right, C, Whatever.

Speaker B: So a little, little Spanish.

Speaker C: English makes me trilingual. If C is Portuguese and Spanish.

Speaker A: No, it's not.

Speaker C: Dang it. Never mind.

Speaker B: Um, is American Sign Language multilingual? Doesn't. That doesn't count. I know sign language. You say C. Um, so little Spanish, little Spanish engagement, little Portuguese. Let's go. Little Portuguese go.

Speaker A: Okay. Ask a question.

Speaker B: Yeah, ask Eric a question.

Speaker A: Okay, Eric.

Speaker C: Um, See,

Speaker A: no, that's true. No, that is true. Portuguese is right. But I appreciate you trying.

Speaker B: Okay. We tried, we tried. I know

Speaker A: pantalones.

Speaker B: Um, cortos.

Speaker A: That is pantalones.

Speaker B: Is that shorts?

Speaker A: That's the Spanish.

Speaker B: Yeah, Spanish for short. That's one of the only words that I remember.

Speaker C: But very useful one.

Speaker B: And el bano bathroom. It's an important one, especially if you're

Speaker A: lost, um, when you go to my end next time I'm gonna tell everybody in the company to speak Spanish.

Speaker B: Perfect.

Speaker A: And we just throw you there and see how you react.

Speaker B: That's perfect. Kind of like I just did to you.

Speaker C: Yep, exactly.

Speaker B: Hey, perfect. I can't wait. Um, all right, cool. So let's jump to um, what's next for uh, Intermex specifically? I think you did a great job explaining kind of where the landscape is going, where Central Payments and Intermex are uh, expanding our partnership. Um, what's on your roadmap in spirit of um, just next adventures or focuses for the next 12, 18 months?

Speaker A: That's a tough question.

Speaker B: It is.

Speaker A: Um, I would say first we have to serve more consumers on the digital side. So today our business is 90 plus percent based on retail. We have to rebalance the company. The company at some point needs to be a very solid and profitable and high quality service on the retail locations, but needs to have a bigger share of the digital space. So that I would say is the priority number one, how we grow our digital business, how we truly become Omnichannel company. So today we are what I call a multi channel company. You have an experience on the digital side, you have an experience on the retail side. Not necessarily. They're connected. So what we've been doing, I would say for a year now is to creating a, a, a common experience that is truly omnichannel. That's, that's the point number one. Uh, the point number two is to really evolve into a financial service provider world. Right. Today we are limited to few products. We offer remittance services, we offer bill payments, we offer top up and we offer the pay card. Um, I see that in the next, as you said, 18 months we should offer at least a uh, more dynamic card product for those who are in the industry, what we call gpr, but let's say a uh, multi funding, um, payment method that is, emulates or is very similar to a bank account because that is the foundation of the vision we have for the company and probably something related to loans. One thing that we see is that these employees, this, this immigrants, they have a short uh, term cash flow problem. Because if in my example if you're picking up strawberry and there is a tornado, you cannot work that week, you cannot work that day. But, but the bills are still arriving, right? We still have to pay. So they use friends and family or some tricky kind of business out there to get their money for this short term cash flow. So we believe that what we're calling microloans can be a good alternative as well because we can, through the cards, through the electronic payment methods that we're enabling, we can uh, provide them some short term cash and they can pay back once they receive their salaries, etc. So I would say this is, this is the second big piece is the multifinancial service approach. And third, we are seeing a very, uh, increasing trend of using Stable Coins as a way to move money. Right. Uh, we have our Rails, we have very efficient Rails from technology perspective and from a financial perspective. But we cannot deny that once stablecoins grow, uh, in the industry, we are going to have more challenge to catch up because it makes even cheaper and even more, uh, I would say flexible moving money from here to there. So we are studying and developing our approach towards stable coins to see if that help us to go to new markets or if you can find more efficiency in existing markets. But that's more, I would say a technology that is not felt by the consumers, but that's going to be operating behind the scenes. So These are the three pillars that I believe in the next 18 months we're going to focus. Yep.

Speaker B: I think Central Payments is doing the same thing around stablecoin is what's our play, what's next. And we have a really smart um, head of innovation that's taken the lead on that market research and business cases. Um, so that's uh, exciting news, uh, for us too.

Speaker A: So she has a blush on her guy.

Speaker B: She does. Also behind the camera.

Speaker A: No, but I truly, I'm not a fan of crypto things. I was very skeptical about it for a while, but I think that's the first real use case that is adding value to the community. Right. Uh, it's not just a trend or things like we heard in the past. I truly believe that the leveraging Stable coins might be an important tool for companies like us in different ways.

Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. Um, as we wrap up, um, I'll ask you to think about what else you'd like to share with the audience about Intermex. But um, one last plug just on YouTube for Intermex stories and following a little bit more of the work you guys are doing, uh, to showcase the audience, the use cases, the stories, um, because it is really meaningful work. So uh, with that, anything in closing about Intermex, anything else you'd like to share about our partnership?

Speaker A: There's a lot. So let's start from the macro thinking. We talk about that before as well. I would, as a human, I would exclude any political statement I, ah, would try to understand the importance of immigration to America. Right. So whoever is watching, there is a very high chance that the avocado toast that you pay $15 in Manhattan this morning came from the hands of an immigrant. Right. So again, no political statements, not talk about pro or against illegal immigration. That's on the agenda. But there is an important contribution from immigrants to the American society. No matter if it's as a chief, blah, blah, blah, blah in Miami or if somebody picking up strawberries in California, whatever they said, heavy strawberries. So this is an agenda that I think all of us should understand, should have an opinion, whatever it is, but should have an opinion based on that. When you look at Intermex, I think Intermex is going through major change. So I think there is our will, our desire to really serve this population of immigrants, this population of people who are not part of the financial system. And uh, that's something that I'm proud to say we are doing. On the other hand, we are always looking for good people. So if you're looking for a job, reach out to Intermax. We are willing to hire people who understand our values, understand our mission, but want to do things differently. Right. I think, uh, particularly the newer generations, the Z, X, Y, whatever is their name, uh, there are few companies out there that has a true mission behind it. And I think Central Payments, I think Intermax are companies who have that and offer a different perspective how to build your career. Uh, regarding what we are doing, I think there is a huge, huge opportunity for us to penetrate better the agriculture sector, to penetrate better the construction sector, to penetrate better the services sector. We talk about agriculture here, but all these people, all these sectors have the same challenge. So I wonder if people are going to see, uh, us being the biggest player in this industry in like, um, 20, 15 years. Because I think we have a potential to really take this market and do something better. Because I think we, we combine assets that I don't see other players in doing that in the industry. Even when we had our chart divorce, we went to work with another company, was a, uh, completely disaster. And then I learned a lot about things that are really valuable because it's very easy to come here, promise and say things that you can do that you like to do, etc. Etc. But you know, you come back to the person you love.

Speaker B: Yeah, well, we love that. And I'll say just to plug Central payments, we've been on a journey of what's really important to us as a people supporting, um, partners like Intermix and doing the right things for the right reasons and focusing on execution, not over promising and under delivering has been a really important uh, thing for us. We've recently in 25, uh, 2025 cited a new mantra called the CP difference. And we've been talking what it looks like. Why is central payments different? What is the attitude of our people, uh, what's our approach to service execution, how we show up? And I'm really delighted that you are experiencing the CP difference.

Speaker A: And congratulations. I think you guys completely changed the way that central payments operate. I've been this journey for three years and it's like black and white what it, what I saw before versus what I see today. At any level, from the customer care up to SEO, uh, things are really, really different. So whatever you did, you did very well.

Speaker B: It's all the heart behind it and the value that we get to provide to serve our mutual consumers. So with that, um, Eric, closing thoughts.

Speaker C: Um, I think I'm truly grateful for the partnership. Again. We talked about use cases and you know, it's so easy to see. We have, we have a few partnerships, but this one especially, where you can truly see very easily the value that a company like Intermax, our partner, brings to the world. I mean effectively to people like literally eating, not eating, paying bills, not paying bills. So, um, you know, you just kind of sit back and feel blessed to, to play a small part in that in your professional setting. So, uh, certainly thank you for the opportunity to partner and uh, it's been a great ride and I am very, very excited for uh, the next year or two.

Speaker B: To the future.

Speaker A: To the future. Thank you guys.

Speaker C: Thank you.