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Consumers lacking bank accounts represent one of the best opportunities for issuers, mobile payment providers and other players in Latin America's payments industry, according to speakers at Terrapinn's Cards & Payments Latin America conference in Miami this week. Thanks to steady economic growth and a rising middle class in such countries as Brazil and Mexico, cards have gained popularity over cash and checks throughout the region, speakers said. The rise of credit-reporting firms that collect positive credit information on consumers also has played a role, notes Nelson Irizarry, a consultant with United States-based First Annapolis. "The expansion of payments to less affluent populations is one of the most significant trends," he says. Growth in the region's payments industry will come from persuading more consumers without bank accounts to use prepaid and payroll cards and, eventually, mobile payments, says Mark Grossman, senior vice president of MasterCard Advisors LLC, a unit of MasterCard Worldwide. More focused marketing can provide gains for issuers and other payment-services providers in the region. "Latin American banking is finally waking to the fact that [the region's customer base] is not a uniform entity," he says.
