Payment innovation on the up-and-up in Latin America
The Latin American online payments atmosphere is due for some innovation. Over the past couple of years, local alternative payment methods have emerged and have gained quite a bit of notoriety. With that being stated, plastic still reigns in the region and holds on as the leading payment method used by online shoppers. Credit, debit, and prepaid cards continue to perform well, but a kindling around mobile payments has started to develop.
Growing interest surrounding mobile payments
Given a poll which surveyed Internet users in Latin America in 2018, over two-thirds of users said they were likely to use mobile payment in the course of the next year. Digging further into these numbers and breaking it down to a country-specific level, mobile payments are already used in-store by over a third of banked Internet users in Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina. Security concerns and the large number of unbanked inhabitants in the region still prevail as blockades to growth, but it is seen that these barriers are diminishing year after year.
Effects stretch further than convenience
Mobile payments are expected to not only revamp the overall payment landscape in Latin America, but also plant seeds of change in the region’s society. This trend is seen a driver for improving financial inclusion in Latin America, aiding in modernization and economic development. Two countries that have a fair share of unbanked citizens, Argentina and Mexico, now have some of the highest mobile payment user penetration rates in the region.
The expansion of mobile payments in Latin America has also sparked prospects for future growth in regional FinTech firms.
For more details on this trend, see the report “Latin America Online Payment Methods 2019” by yStats.com.
