Although Latin America was the region with the greatest growth in the number of people with bank accounts in the period between 2017 and 2021, the region still has a large share of the population that is unbanked: more than 18% of the local population (122 million people ) does not yet have a bank account.
However, this scenario is changing. With the success of fintechs in the region, more people are entering the financial system: since the start of the pandemic, 22.7 million Brazilians have opened their first bank account, according to the Central Bank.
Thinking about the Brazilian reality, which has the second lowest unbanking rate in Latin America, around 10 years ago the existing alternatives for financial topics were very restricted. And this expanded from the moment regulation opened the way for fintechs.
This process is also happening in other countries in the region that are working on their regulatory framework to accommodate new business models.