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Invisible Giant

In Latin America, the account went from rare to routine.

In one generation, a bank account in Latin America stopped being a privilege.

By capsrow · Updated July 2026

In one generation, a bank account in Latin America stopped being a privilege.

In 2011, fewer than four in ten adults across the region held any financial account. By 2024, it was seven in ten. Peru's climb is the sharpest of the set - from one in five adults to nearly six in ten. Brazil now sits above eight in ten, carried by an instant-payment layer that reached people the branch network never did.

The account came first, and everything else is being built on top of it.

This is the base layer a continent's digital economy now runs on.

Sources. Source: World Bank Global Findex, 2011 to 2024 (excludes high-income economies). Source: World Bank Global Findex, 2011 and 2024. Source: World Bank Global Findex, 2024 (excludes high-income economies).