BANCO DEL PACÍFICO | GAMER LOAN | 2024
The Day Your Game Account Becomes Collateral / BANCO DEL PACÍFICO "GAMER LOAN"
Skins and items as collateral. Eight out of ten young people in Ecuador don't own a car or a house, so they can't get a loan. But they do have a game account they've poured hundreds of hours into. A bank showed up and said that account has real value.
The problem
In Ecuador, eight out of ten young people can't get loans, because they don't own the cars or property that banks ask for as collateral. Meanwhile, one in three Ecuadorians owns a game account. Financial institutions just weren't seeing that as an asset.
The insight
Gamers keep paying back their loans because they don't want to lose an account they've put real value into. Their attachment to skins and levels works exactly like a hostage held as collateral. A deeply human discovery.
The idea
Banco del Pacífico changed its lending policy and became the world's first bank to accept game accounts as collateral. The value of a player's items is calculated using market prices from places like U7BUY, with the whole process reviewed at gamerloan.com. Credit gets approved within 48 to 72 hours.
What happened
$2.2 million in loans were issued, with a 100% repayment rate. The campaign won Gold in the Entertainment for Gaming category at Cannes Lions 2024.
Afterthought
The idea that gamers are "unproductive" got smashed by the numbers. What's striking is that this wasn't just a PR stunt, it was a real financial product. The bank changed its actual lending policy and chose to trust young people.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2024
