The payments ecosystem in Latin America is experiencing significant changes that could represent a new direction for the sector in strategic terms. PCMI—an AMI subsidiary that specializes in both Latin American and global payments—recently worked with Kushki on a white paper highlighting these changes and what they mean.
Specifically, the report details four digital payments trends in Latin America:
- Interoperability. Consumer demand for the unfettered movement of money between multiple banks, e-wallets, and apps.
- Contactless payments. A reaction to the market’s effort to keep cards competitive, through a technology now used in more than 50% of face-to-face transactions, in countries like Colombia, Peru, and Chile.
- Pix as a role model. Considered “one of the most transformative events of the last decade,” Pix is a model of financial inclusion, speed, and security in payments, and an alternative to cash and cards in the region.
- P2P payments, facilitating instant transfers, with over 20 technological schemes currently in operation. Latin America has fervent representatives in its various economies: Plin in Peru, MACH in Chile, Nequi in Colombia, and Mercado Pago, to name a few.
Exploring these topics in depth, Digital Payment Trends in Latin America in 2023 offers wide-ranging data that will perhaps be useful to industry professionals, including:
- Distribution of e-commerce payment methods in Latin America 2022
- E-commerce volume in the top six Latin American markets
- Distribution of payment methods in face-to-face retail
- Market share of payment methods in regional retail, e-commerce + F2F
- Current state of interoperability development in Latin America, from the least interoperable to the most interoperable markets
- Real-time payment schemes, such as SINPE Móvil in Costa Rica and other, less successful cases, such as SPEI in Mexico, and Transferencias 3.0 in Argentina
- Penetration of credit and debit cards among the population of Latin America
- List of Latin American countries with the highest penetration of contactless payments
- List of Latin American markets with tap on/to phone technology
- Potential use of cell phones or mobile devices as POS terminals in Latin America
- Brazil: volume of Pix compared with other payment instruments; Boleto, DOC, TEC, Chek, and TED
- Cases of commercial initiatives with Pix to increase the average ticket in P2B digital transactions
- Analysis of “Pix Parcelado,” a credit initiative through Pix
- P2P transfer frameworks in Latin America, including ACH
- The “Playbook” for driving adoption of instant transfer models, from P2P to P2B
How to Get a Free Copy of Digital Payment Trends in Latin America in 2023
Click on the image below to download the report free of charge:

Digital Payment Trends in Latin America in 2023
Breakdown of the trends that will mobilize financial inclusion and the adoption of payment technology across Latin America in 2023.
Explore Further
In addition to these trends and the wealth of data shared in this white paper, there is another resource you can take advantage of.
At the launch of the white paper, Lindsay Lehr—CEO of PCMI—joined Gabriele Zuliani, Head of Market Development LATAM at Kushki, to analyze the topics discussed in the white paper, along with other significant developments:
- Low acceptance of cards through POS—an estimate of just 26% among formal and informal businesses in Latin America
- The reduction in cash transactions, which have fallen by 36% in the last year
- The proliferation of fintech initiatives
Their discussion was moderated by Jose Caparroso, a Forbes editor, and signaled the inauguration of the “Kushki Talks” series, webinars on payments topics.
You can watch the entire webinar below:
About PCMI

Established in late 2022, Payments and Commerce Market Intelligence (PCMI) is a subsidiary of Americas Market Intelligence (AMI) that specializes in the payments and commerce industry for Latin America and the world. The PCMI payments team has more than 10 years of experience in market intelligence for the payments sector, and has produced extensive work for leading global businesses.
For more information, visit: https://paymentscmi.com/