From the US–Mexico hall to Pix and stablecoins, how cash strikes throughout Latin America’s borders – and the fintechs rebuilding the rails
Latin America runs on cash that crosses borders from throughout the globe. Cross-border funds within the type of remittances to the area reached round $174.4bn in 2025, in accordance with the Inter-American Growth Financial institution (IDB) – up $11.7bn on 2024 and marking 16 consecutive years of progress.
For a number of economies, these flows are a structural a part of financial stability. Banco de México (Banxico) information reveals Mexico acquired $61.79bn in remittances in 2025, whereas in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador the flows account for a far bigger share of nationwide earnings. Add a fast-growing B2B cross-border market – marketplaces, payroll, provider funds – and the area has develop into one of the crucial intently watched testbeds for funds innovation wherever.
Essentially the most important fee corridors for LatAm
The US–Mexico route is the biggest remittance hall on the planet, however it’s in transition. Banxico’s figures present Mexico’s 2025 whole fell 4.6% from the $64.75bn recorded in 2024 – the primary annual decline after greater than a decade of progress – in opposition to a backdrop of tighter US immigration enforcement.
A brand new value has arrived too: from 1 January 2026, the US applies a 1% excise tax on remittances funded with money, cash orders or cashier’s checks, per the US Inside Income Service.
The US dominates flows throughout the area. In accordance with the IDB, it accounts for 73.5% of transfers to Central America and 96% of these to Mexico. And whereas Mexico dipped, Central America surged: the IDB estimates the subregion acquired round $55.4bn in 2025, up 20.4%, with Honduras (+26.0%), Guatemala (+20.2%), Nicaragua (+18.2%) and El Salvador (+17.9%) posting the biggest will increase.
How remittances truly transfer
A typical remittance entails a sender paying a cash switch operator, financial institution or fintech app within the origin nation; the supplier settles throughout borders by correspondent banking or pre-funded native accounts; and a payout associate delivers native forex through financial institution deposit, pockets or money pickup.
Money nonetheless issues extra in LatAm than the business generally admits. Banxico studies that 99.1% of remittances to Mexico in 2025 have been despatched electronically – but 49.6% of these digital transfers, price $30.33bn, have been collected in money on the receiving finish, reflecting persistent gaps in banking entry.
Remittance prices within the area are down, however erratically so. Analysis from the Inter-American Dialogue places the unweighted common value of sending to the area at 3.67%, dropping to round 3% throughout essentially the most generally used strategies, and beneath 2.4% in efficient phrases for senders remitting greater than $300 – properly beneath world averages, however nonetheless significant cash on corridors measured in tens of billions.
Fintech and the brand new rails
Two forces are remaking the plumbing. The primary is home immediate funds going worldwide.
Brazil’s Pix is the standout: Central Financial institution of Brazil information reveals the system processed 5.4 billion transactions price BRL1.7tn ($329bn) in September 2025 alone, and analysis revealed by funds agency EBANX discovered Pix had processed 196.2 billion transactions price $16tn between its 2020 launch and September 2025.
Mexico’s SPEI performs an identical function because the real-time payout leg for cross-border suppliers, and connecting these home schemes throughout borders is now a said ambition of the area’s central banks.
The second is stablecoins. Bitso studies that it processed greater than $6.5bn in remittances on the US–Mexico hall in 2024 – over 10% of whole quantity between the 2 nations.
The attraction is the construction this gives, as a result of dollar-backed tokens settle across the clock, this strips out the pre-funding capital and settlement float that correspondent rails require. The IDB has famous that stablecoins at the moment are exhibiting up in family remittances, not simply crypto-native flows – a sign that the know-how has crossed into the mainstream of the area’s funds story.
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