According to Statista, fintech in Latin America (LatAm) suffered in 2023, with less than $2billion invested in fintech ventures – a drastic drop from 2021’s value of $6billion. Nonetheless, in the face of this hardship, fintechs have still continued to emerge and find success in the region, and across 2024, investment levels surged back up over $2billion again. With the future of fintech looking optimistic in 2025, Em Conversa looks to explore how the LatAm region can prosper once more.
2025 has kicked off with a bang for the Mexican business sector as a new partnership between open finance platform, Belvo and paytech, J.P. Morgan Payments looks to improve recurring payments management for organisations. It will automate and secure payments that eliminate errors and optimise financial processes.
Further benefits of this new partnership include higher transaction success rates and advanced functionalities such as partial payments, as well as an enhanced user experience that fosters loyalty and improves retention.
Federica Gregorini, general manager of Belvo in Mexico
As a result of the partnership, Belvo is becoming a part of the J.P Morgan Payments Partner Network, Belvo is taking recurring payments to the next level, combining cutting-edge technology with the global expertise of J.P. Morgan. To understand what this means for Belvo and how the company will continue to evolve its offering, we sat down with Federica Gregorini, general manager of Belvo in Mexico.
Can you tell me more about the company and your role within it?
Belvo is an open finance and payments platform in Latin America, helping businesses and financial institutions access and process financial data securely and efficiently. We enable seamless payment processing and offer employment data insights that improve decision-making and customer experiences.
As general manager of Belvo Mexico, my role is to oversee our operations here, ensuring we continue driving innovation in open finance while supporting our clients in various sectors, including fintech and banking. We’re focused on empowering businesses to automate payments and build more inclusive financial solutions.
What are some open finance and payment trends we’re seeing in Mexico?
Mexico is experiencing rapid growth in digital payments, especially with recurring payments, as more businesses look for ways to automate and streamline their financial processes.
According to the Bank of Mexico, interbank transactions grew 12.3 per cent in 2023, reaching 18.6 million, signalling strong demand for solutions like direct debit. There’s also a growing interest in real-time payments and the use of digital wallets, which is helping to reduce cash dependency, especially in urban areas. These trends are driving the adoption of open finance solutions, enabling more efficient, secure, and inclusive financial services across the region.
What is Belvo doing to improve the open finance and payment sector in Mexico and LatAm?
At Belvo, we’re deeply committed to improving financial inclusion and efficiency in Latin America. In Mexico, for example, we launched our direct debit platform in January 2024, and it has already processed over four million transactions. This success has been driven by our advanced technology and seamless API integrations that allow businesses to automate recurring payments effortlessly.
Our partnership with J.P. Morgan Payments has been crucial in scaling this solution, helping businesses in industries like utilities, insurance, and subscriptions to streamline their payments and optimize cash flow.
Beyond Mexico, we are also expanding our reach in countries like Brazil, where for instance, the Pix system has revolutionised payments by enabling real-time transactions, which has created a blueprint for how open finance can foster financial inclusion. Our goal is to contribute to the growth of these ecosystems by providing tools that support the digital transformation of payments across the region, helping businesses scale and empowering consumers with more accessible financial services.
How does the Mexican payments and open finance sector compare to that of the rest of the world?
Mexico’s payment landscape is one of the most dynamic in Latin America, and it’s making significant strides in digital payments. For example, Mexico leads global e-commerce growth, with a 24.6 per cent increase in online retail sales in 2023, making it the fastest-growing e-commerce market worldwide.
However, when comparing Mexico’s payment landscape to more mature markets like the US or Europe, there’s still significant room for growth, especially in terms of financial inclusion. Roughly 50 per cent of the Mexican population remains unbanked, and this presents a unique challenge in terms of digital adoption.
That being said, Mexico has a lot of potential. Systems like CoDi are helping drive real-time payments adoption, and Pix in Brazil provides a great example of how a national payment system can evolve into an open finance tool.
Mexico is also seeing increasing interest from global players and fintechs who see the potential for digital payments to drive greater inclusion, similar to what we’ve seen in countries like India with UPI or Brazil with Pix. This puts Mexico in a strong position to lead digital transformation in the region, with open finance acting as a key enabler of this shift.
What are some unique challenges associated with the region/Mexico in the payments and open finance space?
The payments landscape in Mexico and Latin America is evolving rapidly, driven by the adoption of digital payment systems like SPEI in Mexico and Pix in Brazil. While these systems have made significant progress in facilitating immediate payments, the region still faces challenges when it comes to automating recurring payments.
In Mexico, SPEI has been a key tool for one-time payments, but its ‘push’ nature means users must initiate each transaction, making it less suitable for recurring billing models such as subscriptions, utilities, or insurance. This creates friction for businesses that rely on consistent, automated payments to manage their operations and cash flow.
This is where direct debit becomes a game-changer. Unlike SPEI, which requires user initiation, direct debit operates on a ‘pull’ basis, allowing businesses to collect payments automatically on set dates. This automation not only reduces operational costs and errors but also helps businesses achieve more predictable and stable cash flow. This is particularly important in sectors like telecom, utilities, and subscriptions, where consistent payments are key to maintaining financial stability.
Looking at the broader Latin American context
Countries like Brazil have seen the rapid adoption of systems like Pix, which has revolutionised real-time payments with its low-cost and instant settlement features. However, even with Pix, recurring payments remain a challenge. Direct debit, with its established infrastructure for recurring payments, addresses this gap more effectively.
In Mexico, the growing demand for automated solutions is being met by direct debit, which has gained popularity as a preferred solution for recurring payments. This method allows businesses to automate payments and avoid issues like card expiration or fraud, providing a seamless and reliable experience for both businesses and consumers.
While Mexico and Latin America have made great strides in payment innovation, direct debit offers a unique opportunity to address the region’s challenges around recurring payments, providing businesses with a secure, cost-effective, and scalable solution to manage automated transactions.
Plans for the future
Looking ahead, we plan to continue expanding the reach of our direct debit solution, particularly in Mexico where we aim to process over 25 million transactions by 2025. We’re also investing heavily in expanding our open finance offerings, helping businesses leverage financial data to improve decision-making, reduce fraud, and offer more personalized services.
We’re focusing on scaling our platform, so businesses in sectors like fintech, telecom, and insurance can use our technology to optimize their operations and improve customer experiences. Furthermore, we will continue collaborating with strategic partners like J.P. Morgan Payments to ensure that our solutions are scalable and secure, helping to drive widespread adoption of recurring payment solutions across the region.
Final thoughts
Belvo’s partnership with J.P. Morgan Payments represents a major milestone in the open finance and payments landscape in Mexico and Latin America. This collaboration is an important step toward automating recurring payments, improving operational efficiency, and offering a better experience for both businesses and their customers.
As we continue to grow, our focus remains on helping businesses automate and streamline their payment processes, which will ultimately contribute to greater financial inclusion and a more robust open finance ecosystem in the region. The future of payments in Latin America is bright, and we’re excited to be part of this transformation.
The post Em Conversa: Improving Business Payments in Mexico With Belvo appeared first on The Fintech Times.
