A bitcoin exchange and a remittance company have partnered to offer customers fiat-to-bitcoin deposit services across Latin America.

Bitex.la

has joined with More Money Transfers (MMT), a Latin American remittances company in what they claim is the first alliance of its kind. However, the partnership, said Bitex chief marketing officer Manu Beaudroit, isn’t meant to provide remittance services in bitcoin, but instead, enable more people into contact and activity with the digital currency.

Speaking to CoinDesk, Beaudroit voiced his belief that bitcoin holds some of the greatest promise for remittance companies in the Latin American region.

“Remittance companies, which belong to the traditional ecosystem, are being threatened by bitcoin,” Beaudroit said. “With this alliance they are embracing the future of how money is going to be transmitted.”

The service is available in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; and Cochabamba, Bolivia, at present. Its network will soon extend to more than 240 Latin American cities.

Users need to first be registered with Bitex.la to receive a personal code required to make deposits into their accounts.

They can then go to any of MMT office and deposit fiat into their Bitex.la accounts. The deposit will be reflected in the user’s Bitex.la account in USD within one hour, with which it can buy bitcoin through Bitex.la.

Alternatively, users can go through the same process and receive funds directly in bitcoin. If they arrive at a MMT location with a ConectaBitcoin code, MMT will convert the deposited amount into USD, send it to users’ Bitex.la accounts, and Bitex.la will convert the funds into BTC.

Beaudroit said that the cash out feature will become more available through MMT by summer.

Latin America has been touted as a major region in which bitcoin can transform the way remittance services companies operate.

In a nod to the many citizens that either have no access to a bank account or endure the high cost of transmitting money abroad through money transfer services like Western Union and MoneyGram, Beaudroit expressed his excitement about a bitcoin company joining with a remittance service at last.

“For Latin America [this] is huge because it means that there’s no need for a bank to operate with bitcoin,” he said.

He added that this would make sending and receiving money a more accessible event for users because of the many locations available for them to do so across the region. While there are three MMT offices currently, the company has many more partnerships continent-wide with small businesses wherein users can access the service.

Argentinian pesos via Shutterstock