Latin American Payments: The Emerging View From South of the Border

Latin America—as a region and as ground being seeded for the future of payments—is vast, diverse, and resistant to attempts to bring it into homogeneity. The region encompasses around two dozen countries with their own currencies, monetary policies, histories, and trajectories with regard to financial infrastructure and development. Amid these variables, a new age in payments is rising, being marked by instant payments, greater financial inclusion, and an atmosphere that is conducive to disruption by fintech startups, as well as by a lagging approach to data capture and leverage.

This Javelin Strategy & Research report looks at the changing payments landscape through those lenses, outlining the broad trends afoot in Latin America and the factors that have made it an area both teeming with payments innovation and facing significant hurdles to overcome.

Key questions discussed in this report:

• What are the prevailing payments trends in Latin America?
• What are the challenges to financial inclusion in Latin America, and how are those challenges being faced?
• What is the state of play in financial technology in Latin America?
• What are the challenges to better data capture and curation in Latin America?

Companies Mentioned:

AWS, Accenture, Azure, BBVA, Banco Patagonia, Banco Santander, Banco Unión, Banco de Brazil, Berkshire Hathaway, Bitso, Bradesco, C6 Bank, Caixa Economica Federal, Clip, CoDi, Ebanx, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, FedNow, Google, Huawei, IBM, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Institute of International Finance, Invesco, Itáu Unibanco, Kueski, N26, Neon Bank, Nubank, Oracle, Pix, Plin, PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, QR BCB, RTP Network, Ribbit, SPEI, SPI, Sequoia, Sinpe Móvil, Sinpe de Costa Rica, Stori, TEF, Tencent, The Clearing House, Transfer 365, Transfer 365 Móvil, Transferencias 3.0, Transfiya, Unified Payments Interface, Wallet 2.0, World Bank, Yape