Last year, Accion Ventures co-hosted the LatAm Fintech Forum alongside Quona and Flourish Ventures during Mexico Tech Week. The event brought together investors, operators, and ecosystem leaders to discuss macro trends shaping the region’s fintech ecosystem, including regulatory evolution, stablecoins and cross-border payments, and financial infrastructure.

One of the forum’s panels featured Eduardo Flores Herrera, a Partner at White & Case; Tomas Wintour, Executive Director at J.P. Morgan; and Diego Szteinhendler, Senior Vice President of Fintechs and Commerce at Mastercard, who shared perspectives on how regulation, institutional capital, and global payment networks are shaping fintech growth across Latin America.

Below are several of the key takeaways from the discussion.

1. Regulatory strategy must match long-term ambition

For founders, designing a regulatory strategy around the end state model is imperative. Incremental licensing can appear efficient in the short term but often creates friction later when scale and product expansion demand additional approvals. For payments and wallet players, especially, compliance architecture is a strategic asset.

As AML obligations expand and counterterrorism designations tighten oversight, financial institutions are investing more heavily in compliance infrastructure. Mexico’s regulatory framework varies meaningfully by vertical and entity type. Launching a lending business remains relatively straightforward. However, holding customer funds through deposits, e-money, or investments requires a more complex licensing path. As Eduardo from White & Case noted during the discussion, these regulatory distinctions often shape how fintechs sequence their product expansion in Mexico.

Shared fraud and AML databases are beginning to emerge, signaling progress toward ecosystem-wide trust even as full open finance implementation remains pending.

2. Inclusion gains are real, but cash remains dominant

Financial inclusion in Mexico has improved substantially. According to the 2025 Global Findex, account ownership rose from roughly 39 percent of adults in 2014 to 55 percent in 2024. Yet access does not necessarily translate directly to usage. Diego emphasized that the challenge is now shifting everyday consumer behavior rather than simply expanding access.

Roughly 85 percent of sub-500 peso (about $29) transactions still occur in cash. The next phase of fintech growth is not just onboarding users; it is driving habitual digital usage for everyday payments.

Driving behavior change requires coordination among fintechs, merchants, enablers, and networks. Acceptance infrastructure, seamless UX, and embedded financial services must work together to displace cash at the point of sale.

3. Capital markets are stabilizing

While the fundraising environment has been challenging in recent years, Tomas Wintour of J.P. Morgan noted that institutional investors are beginning to see signs of stabilization across global technology markets. Latin American tech startups have drawn tens of billions of dollars in venture capital over the last decade, with fintech continuing to be one of the most heavily financed sectors across the region.

Investor sentiment is improving: The region has seen several $100+ million rounds in the past 12 months, and IPO activity in the US is rebounding. For mid-cap Latin American companies with strong growth fundamentals, 2026 may bring renewed liquidity pathways.

Amid these trends, investors are increasingly rewarding strong unit economics, regulatory clarity, and credible paths to profitability.

4. Applied AI is delivering measurable gains

Across the panel discussion, speakers pointed to applied AI as one of the technologies already delivering measurable operational gains. Across customer service, collections, KYC, AML, and fraud detection, fintechs are deploying AI systems that drive efficiency and reduce risk in real time.

Fraud detection engines that make millisecond decisions and AI-powered support agents that reduce servicing costs are going live in production. For payments and lending players, AI is increasingly table stakes rather than a differentiator.

5. Opportunity areas for entrepreneurs

Taking these macro and technology dynamics together, Diego highlighted several high-potential sectors:

• AI-enabled lending, where alternative data and automation can unlock more precise underwriting.
• Vertical B2B platforms that embed financial services into software workflows.
• Cross-border payments and remittances, particularly as stablecoins and new rails lower friction and cost.

For a payments network like Mastercard, cross-border flows and merchant enablement are critical levers. For fintech founders, these segments represent large addressable markets where infrastructure gaps still exist.

Building the ecosystem together

Events like the LatAm Fintech Forum are made possible through our long-standing partnership with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. The opportunity in Latin America is substantial, but capturing it requires thoughtful regulatory design, disciplined capital deployment, strong compliance infrastructure, and collaborative partnerships. At the same time, the growing role of AI across credit risk, customer segmentation, fraud detection, and analytics will be critical, alongside an increasing focus on fairness, transparency, and accountability in how these systems are deployed.

Through our continued work with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and other partners, we will explore these themes and more at the upcoming Fintech for Inclusion Global Summit in London. Secure your tickets here.