The Quiet Fintech Revolution in Mexico: What’s Changing Beneath the Surface

Smartphones are everywhere. Cash still dominates. Credit is underused. Insurance is ignored. Here's what the data says — and why this matters more than ever.

¡Despierta, México!

When people think of fintech in Latin America, they jump straight to Brazil or maybe Argentina. But Mexico — with over 100M internet users, skyrocketing smartphone usage, and a quiet but persistent push toward financial inclusion — is becoming one of the most promising battlegrounds for digital finance.

In this deep dive, we’ll explore what’s driving this shift, where the real opportunities are, and how product leaders and founders can plug into the momentum.

Macro Pulse: Digital Infrastructure is Ready 🧭

• 83.1% of Mexicans are now online, and 97.2% connect via smartphones.

• The average user spends 4.4 hours/day on the internet, rising to 5.6+ hours for Gen Z and millennials.

• Mobile-first nation: 73% use both mobile data and Wi-Fi.

• Key activities online: communication (93%), social media (90%), entertainment (89%), and banking/payments (up 3pp YoY).

Financial Access: The Inclusion Boom, but Still Fragile

• 77% of adults have at least one financial product, up from 68% in 2021.

• Women (+16pp) and rural users (+10pp) saw the biggest inclusion jumps.

• 69% of users now manage their accounts via smartphone apps.

But here's the twist:

• Only 15% own a credit card, and many still avoid formal credit out of fear or a lack of trust.

• Informal lending is still used by 30% of adults.

• The first account for many was government aid or payroll, not proactive choice

• Bank branches still the main distribution channel to open a financial account.

• Financial literacy is stagnant. Only 25% of users keep a budget; most don’t know how products work or how to compare them.

• Most Mexicans don´t save for retirement, while many expect to live from government subsidies

Payments: Cash is King (But Shifting)

• Cash is still king, with 94% of Mexicans using it regularly.

• Only 34% use physical cards, and just 22% use transfers or apps to pay.

• Urban areas are adopting faster. In the South, only 30% of merchants accept cards; in the Northeast, that number is double.

• Among 18–29 year olds, 87% use mobile apps to manage accounts.

Mexican Fintech vs Banks battle: Trust, Reach, and Innovation

• Fintech adoption is growing fast, especially in payments, remittances, and crypto.

• Traditional banks still dominate in asset size and branch network — but they’re not loved. Only 50–60% of users trust banks to resolve complaints, while players like Nubank hold an NPS above 90 with Mexicans advocating for them

• Opportunities are emerging in “invisible” fintech: wallets, embedded finance, remittances (Felix Pago doing a great job here), and credit (Konfio, Plata, Nu, Stori, Kueski, and so on…).

• Product-led growth is happening from wallets to accounts to credit — just like the early Nubank days.

• Players like Plata (last Latin Unicorn), Klar, Stori, albo, Nu México, and Mercado Pago to keep scaling.

Real-Time Payments: What Happened to CoDi?

• CoDi (Mexico’s QR-based payment system) was launched in 2019 by Banxico but hasn’t taken off.

• Main blockers: complex UX, poor merchant adoption, and lack of government push and incentives.

• Unlike Brazil’s Pix, CoDi never reached viral utility.

• The market is still waiting for a true real-time game-changer. Could be driven by fintech-led wallets (like MercadoPago did in Argentina with the QR), or a rebooted public infra effort (like Brazilian Central Bank did with PIX).

📌 Expect Mexico to double down on interoperability and merchant QR acceptance in the next 2 years.

Mexicans Love Financing Everything

• 1 in 5 adults has a store card (tarjeta departamental).

• Credit usage is often tied to consumer purchases like electronics or furniture — but formal personal loans remain underused.

• Many Mexicans split payments across months, even for small purchases, reflecting a deep cultural preference for financing.

• But formal lending is still blocked by documentation, fear of debt, and lack of trust.

Insurance: A Sleeping Giant 🛡

Insurance remains one of the most underutilized financial tools in Mexico — but the opportunity is massive:

• Only 23% of the population holds any type of policy, with life and auto being the most common.

• Cultural unfamiliarity, cost concerns, and lack of accessible products continue to block adoption.

• As digital distribution improves and trusted players like Chubb embed protection into digital ecosystems, this space is poised for exponential growth. The chart below says it all:

Where’s the B2C Opportunity in Mexico? 📍

Final Thought

Mexico isn't loud about its fintech success — but it’s quietly building the infrastructure, behaviors, and market demand that could create a massive digital finance wave in the next 3–5 years.

If you’re building for LatAm, Mexico might be your most important proving ground. And if you’re investing — the question isn’t if fintech will win, but which path to product-market fit will get there fastest.

That’s a wrap!

If you liked this breakdown, share it with a fintech friend or your team, and subscribe to my weekly newsletter in Substack (link in comments) where I go deeper into each topic, share personal reflections, and summarize key LatAm fintech highlights and news of the past weeks.

Abrazo,

Edu