Mexico’s Real-Time Payments Advance Rapidly, Set to Leapfrog US in Digitalization
Central banks in Latin America treat real-time payments as public infrastructure, linking banks, merchants and mobile users at low cost. They accounted for just 2% of the region’s digital payments in 2017, but the share has since risen to 45%. While the United States, Britain and the European Union must still overhaul decades-old systems, Banco de México has built SPEI, CoDi and DiMo to expand financial inclusion through transactions using accounts, QR codes and mobile phone numbers.
American Banker reported on April 6, 2026, that about one-third of Mexico’s population is unbanked, while mobile phone ownership stands at 96%. Banco de México expects SPEI transaction volume to surpass credit and debit card volume in 2026. In 2025, 75% of adults had used SPEI at least once. The next steps are to improve interoperability, reduce fraud and promote everyday low-value payments.
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The history behind this eventBNPL Expansion Drives Payment Infrastructure Shift in Mexico
Financial inclusion remains low in Mexico, where 52% of the population is unbanked, 67% has no credit card and 79% of transactions are still conducted in cash. Andrew Seiz, senior vice president of strategic finance at Kueski, said BNPL is not an add-on to existing credit cards in Mexico but payment infrastructure that gives consumers without a credit history access to the formal financial system.
The Fintech Times reported on March 24, 2026, that Kueski had issued about 40 million loans in Mexico and uses AI and machine learning to assess hundreds of behavioral and transactional variables within seconds. Its app receives nearly 1 million downloads per month. The company did not disclose the amount lent and will focus on execution, cybersecurity and core payment capabilities over the next 18 months.
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