Notes from a small island: Luis Santine is at home in paradise

Luis Santine may live on a Caribbean paradise island, but he has a hard work ethic and his businesses, InfoCapital and CX Pay, have garnered a reputation for the quality of the services and advice provided to clients conducting business on Curaçao.

For Luis, mornings begin with a run, to get his head clear and ready for the hustle and bustle of another day running his financial services businesses. And there can be few better places to go for a run than the beautiful Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao. It’s a territory famous for its beaches, expansive coral reefs and the pastel-coloured colonial architecture in the capital, Willemstad.

“You’ve seen pictures being shared across social media platforms where people say ‘we work/live where you go on vacation’,” he laughs. “It is a safe and pleasant place to live and work. Work life is quite informational, several languages are spoken widely, and there are people from all sorts of nationalities. And then obviously, we have the favourable weather – if hot and sunny is what you’re looking for.”

Curaçao was also known as an offshore centre in the 1970s and ‘80s, but this reputation has gradually diminished over time, although there are still a lot of banking, administration and corporate activities on the islands. Much of that is European and a strong element is, unsurprisingly. Dutch.

“There’s also a lot of American companies and private clients who are using the jurisdiction to set up funds,” adds Luis. “It’s been promoted as a gateway to Latin America as the structures here facilitate entry into those markets.”

GET THE INFO

Luis’ company, InfoCapital, works with a number of overseas businesses that are based in Curaçao, providing advisory and management services to the private and public sector. These services include corporate and fiduciary services, C-Level interim assignments and supervisory board positions, exchange listing services, capital raising, e-commerce and e-payment solutions and advice to financial institutions regarding new payment methods and correspondent banking solutions.

InfoCapital is a boutique firm with a team of just four people: “Our formula has been to work closely with strategic partners. That gives us that flexibility, which means that wherever the client comes from or whatever their need is we are able to cater to them because we can tap into our partners network and come up with a specific solution.”

“You’ve seen pictures being shared across social media platforms where people say ‘we work/live where you go on vacation” he laughs.

Clients range from one-person companies setting up e-commerce activities to multinational commodity trading companies or real estate developers that run multimillion dollar projects in large cities.

“Our clients tend to be early adopters that are looking at the jurisdiction for a specific structure that adds value to their international operations, or they’re looking for some local advice for a unique Member Spotlight: Luis G. Santine Jr., November 2021 opportunity that the island has to offer,” Luis says. “For instance, with renewable energy or solar and wind energy they will look at Curaçao as a unique destination to set up their operation.”

InfoCapital started trading in 2009, initially doing management assignments with a focus on the financial sector with public and private organisations: “Then we shifted towards advising corporate services from 2014 onwards as clients we had built up relationships with started seeking advice and solutions.”

We like to think that we provide a ‘Glocal’ solution to our clients. Combining a global twist to a local solution.

CX PAY

At that time, e-commerce was growing quickly, but there were often hurdles for local or regional companies to overcome to enable them to use it effectively, which is where the idea to start CX Pay came about. “We started offering e-payment solutions, gateway services and online payment solutions to merchants in the Caribbean region and in some Central American markets,” he says. “Our concentration is now on merchants in the Caribbean region and in some Central America.

“It’s been an interesting ride with still plenty of room to grow, especially because of the constant and rapid development in the payment industry.”

“The payments industry is complex and bound by a lot a lot of rules, and because of those rules, merchants always need to have a local solution. In our approach, we partner with local banks to service these markets.

Over the years, CX Pay has grown and launched new services, expanded into new markets and brought out different solutions, depending on the market the company is servicing.

Luis explains: “With the solutions that we have, we are now positioning ourselves to be able to service as broad a range of merchants as possible in the LAC Region, covering Latin American and Caribbean markets.

“It’s been an interesting ride with still plenty of room to grow, especially because of the constant and rapid development in the payment industry.”

LONG HISTORY

Luis has had a long career in the financial services industry, beginning with Rabobank in New York. After a year, he moved with them to the Netherlands because of the link with Curaçao. He then progressed with various roles in the financial sector, in jobs that typically had an international element to them. This led to him gradually building an international network of contacts, which continued after he returned to Curaçao in 2005. As part of the IR Global network, this too helps Luis to generate business and to speak to likeminded professionals.

Over the years, CX Pay has grown and launched new services, expanded into new markets and brought out different solutions.

Back in Curaçao, he made the decision to start InfoCapital: “It was a personal need to better myself and more aggressively use the rich network that I had access to of people seeking advice and information. I started to ask: ‘why not try to do it myself?’”

So he did. He made the transition to his own business, using the knowledge and relationships he had built up over the years in financial services.

It is a move he has never regretted. Running his own business gives Luis a degree of flexibility, and when the pandemic came he chose to work at home. “It gives you some flexibility to spend more quality time with the family, taking breaks whenever it’s convenient to do so and having more spontaneous moments to enjoy with the family.

“It was a personal need to better myself and more aggressively use the rich network that I had access to of people seeking advice and information.”

“At the same time, you have access to all the information you need to continue servicing clients, and you can do calls via Zoom, which is becoming the norm for many people.

“Clients also have the same flexibility, so we don’t need to miss a beat. And based on that, we try to maintain a road that we have been on and hopefully continue enjoying the relationships with clients that we have invested quite a bit of time into over the years.”