Mexico has always been one of the ugly ducklings of Latin America’s financial digitization process, and the Covid pandemic did nothing to change that.
Unlike its neighbors, Mexico’s level of financial inclusion has not shown strong signs of improvement. For example, the percentage of adult Mexicans with access to at least one financial product has remained stable since 2015: 68 percent, according to the latest national survey by the country’s banking and securities regulator, the CNBV. Cash is still used for 90.1 percent of transactions under MXN 500 (USD 29), and 78.7 percent of payments above that amount.
Mexico’s instant payments system, CoDi (Cobro Digital) — which runs on the back of the country’s 24-hour interbank transfer system SPEI and is similar to Brazil’s PIX — has fallen short of expectations. “Only banks were allowed to offer CoDi accounts, which were mandated to be completely free,” investment bank BTG Pactual wrote in a report to clients. “And the necessary incentives for adoption have not been created, at least so far, a particularly important factor in a country where cash...
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