Apr
The One Thing to Care about in Latin America Payments in 2025
With so many markets in LAC, each with different conditions and needs, it can be a challenge to prioritize efforts. This is why we recently had a webinar focused on “the one thing” to care about in LatAm payments. Of course, “one thing” can’t cover the entire region adequately, so instead we focused on prioritizing issues in specific countries.
That said, we opened the webinar by focusing on key trends across the regions:
- 60% of consumer expenditure in Latin America is electronic1
- Cash is used for 37% of consumer expenditure in Latin America in 2025—down significantly from 57% in 2022
- Credit and debit cards each account for 12% of consumer expenditure in Latin America, while instant A2A accounts for 15%
- Traditional money movement, which includes non-instant bank transfers like TEDs, DOCs, boletos bancários, direct debit and checks, accounts for 22% of consumer expenditures in Latin America and may represent the next wave of payment digitization
There are 3 types of markets in LatAm when it comes to cash usage:
Digital expansion (like Brazil and Chile): Here, cash penetration is at less than 20% and cash is mostly used in rural areas, so the key market need is to digitize traditional money movement in verticals like housing.
Acceptance growth (like Mexico, Colombia and Argentina): In these countries, cash’s penetration ranges from 20% to 60% and cash’s main uses are for small merchants, basic needs and under-digitized verticals like housing and utilities; the market need in these countries is for vertical-specific payment plays and strong acceptance value proposition.
Infrastructure growth (like Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, and Bolivia): In these countries, cash’s penetration is 60% or more and the market needs include improving pricing for merchants, increasing competition, and increasing fintech participation.
Key Payments Issues in Specific LatAm Markets in 2025
- In Brazil, the one thing to focus on is the launch of Pix Automático. It’s likely that Pix P2M will surpass credit cards as new features launch—while cards stagnate.
- In Mexico, SPEI and cards are pushing digital growth. Between 2020 and January 2025, SPEI grew with a CAGR of 30%, while credit cards posted a CAGR of 19% and debit cards grew by 20% in this time period.
- In Colombia, Bre-b, which will be launched in the second half of 2025, is poised to enhance competitiveness and efficiency to reduce cash usage and increase financial inclusion.
- In Argentina, deregulation is expected to lead to business growth, increase dollar-based transactions, and also expand cross-border transactions and debit card/digital wallet expenditure.
- In Chile, its fully enabled contactless environment is enabling self-service, one-click e-commerce, software-based acceptance, and putting digital wallets at top of wallet for users.
- In Costa Rica, SINPE Móvil grew by 27% in 2024—though this growth could stall with VAT retention.
Explore further
Scroll down to view the webinar in its entirety so you can understand each of these points in greater context. You can also explore our related webinars: The One Thing to Care About in US Payments and The One Thing to Care About in APAC Payments.
View the webinar:
Next steps
Contact us to create a custom research study on any of these topics—or on one of your company’s key concerns. Our data and analysis help companies:
- Identify opportunities
- Guard against risk
- Enter new markets successfully
- Defend against competitors
- Leverage industry trends into new business
And more. Reach out to see how we can help drive your success in Latin America.
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Sources
- This includes rent, mortgage payments, insurance, healthcare, retail, services and all other consumer P2M transactions, including in the informal economy and excluding P2P. It also includes all A2A payment methods and checks. ↩︎
