Latin America is a continent of contrasts, and its banking landscape is no different. The region enjoys massively accelerating digital adoption (PIX has reached 93% of Brazilians and driven a sharp decline in cash use) and yet a significant portion of the population remains financially excluded. 

In countries like Colombia, where cash use is predicted to continue its steady decline, only 35% of adults have access to any credit product. The unbanked population can also reach over 35% in rural areas, largely due to connectivity problems, which are cited by a recent United Nations report as one of the key barriers to financial inclusion.

This disparity creates a massive challenge: if inclusion begins with access, how do banks serve customers who are less accessible?

The biggest bottleneck for many financial institutions? It’s the onboarding process itself. A recent report found 70% of banks globally lost clients because of onboarding delays in 2025. If you’re a LatAm bank that wants to reach unbanked and underbanked customers, fixing this friction could be your route to new growth.

Key Findings:

• 70% of the LatAm population is either unbanked or under-banked.

• 70% of banks globally lost clients due to onboarding delays in 2025

• 93% of Brazilians now use PIX, while 60% of adults in Latin America made digital payments in 2024.

• 85% of Brazilians view the growth of digital banks and fintechs as beneficial, citing increased financial inclusion.

• Access to a financed cell phone increased the income of 66% of low-income Brazilians; this highlights the critical role of device-based financial services.

• Inclusion gaps persist, particularly affecting rural inhabitants, women, and older adults, underscoring the need for accessibility to be built in by design.

What are the primary friction points that can block remote access for underserved LatAm customers?

Traditional, in-person, or complex digital account opening processes can create critical pain points that disproportionately affect underserved populations:

• Geographical Barrier: For rural and underserved communities, a lengthy onboarding process often means a difficult, costly, or impossible trip to a physical branch, which are scarce in these areas.

• Documentation and Credit History: Many in the informal economy may lack the traditional paper trail banks require. They are economically active, but invisible. This means they might need alternative KYC pathways for proof of creditworthiness.

• Lack of Trust and Familiarity: Distrust of digital systems and low financial literacy can prevent adoption. This can be even more challenging in less developed areas.

These pain points can collectively hinder Technical Inclusion—the delivery and availability of products and services to all sections of society on equal or equivalent terms, irrespective of their location or other abilities.

Why frictionless self-onboarding could be a critical gateway to financial inclusion?

An innovative digital platform can redefine the first interaction your bank has with a potential customer. In other words, it could turn a potential roadblock into a gateway.

Digital self-onboarding is often a critical first step to inclusion.

With the right platform, banks can enable customers to open accounts in minutes. Fully online. From any device. What can this achieve? It can turn customer acquisition's biggest sticking point into a strategic tool for inclusion. This can be especially true for those hard-to-reach rural communities.

How does Galileo’s Cyberbank Digital platform help enable more inclusive self-onboarding?

Galileo’s self-onboarding process, with Cyberbank Digital, is designed to remove the key barriers to access:

1. Seamless User Experience (UX):

   • Ditch the Drop-Off: Our self-onboarding flow is simple and clean. You build it to work for your customers, on their terms. That means no unnecessary friction points. People can open an account in minutes.

   • Device Agnosticism: Customers can sign up from their preferred device, such as a smartphone. This is absolutely crucial, as access to a financed cell phone has been shown to increase the income of 66% of low-income Brazilians. It acts as their digital key to the formal banking system.

2. Built-in Security and Compliance:

   • ID Verification: The platform includes built-in ID verification and compliance tools, ensuring security and adherence to local regulations like KYC/AML. This can support both rapid growth and robust governance.

   • Data-Driven Creditworthiness: The platform's architectural flexibility supports the use of advanced techniques, including alternative data – such as utility payments or digital consumption habits – to better assess creditworthiness. According to the World Bank, this is a major factor in serving the previously "unbanked".

3. The Promise of Technical Inclusion:

   • Reaching the Underserved: By removing the need for a physical branch visit, banks can immediately reach the rural and other areas underserved by branches. This digital accessibility is the core of Technical Inclusion. It helps ensure the delivery of essential services — like credit, micro loans, and simplified accounts — on equal terms.

How can banks turn inclusive onboarding into a strategic opportunity?

The commitment to an accessible, digital onboarding experience is the practical expression of Technical Inclusion. And our survey found 76% of the region’s tech leaders now agree that the issue of inclusion is fundamentally a technical/technology issue.

In the spirit of technical inclusion, banks can also use digital self onboarding to move beyond simply including newly banked consumers by opening an account and begin to empower these customers with useful, relevant financial services.

• Embracing the Informal Economy: An accessible digital account is often the first step toward building a formal financial history. Once onboarded, customers can use digital payments (like PIX), helping them record their movements, which, according to CGAP, can support later inclusion in the formal system and improve access to credit.

• Fostering Competition and Value: The rise of digitally-focused institutions is viewed as having been overwhelmingly positive for the LatAm population. 85% of Brazilians view the growth of fintechs and digital banks as beneficial, citing an increase in financial inclusion and competition. By adopting next-generation onboarding, banks can continue to win new customers by offering better services and superior value.

How Can Cyberbank Digital Address Key Bank Concerns in the LatAm Market?

Adopting next-generation core banking technology is a significant undertaking. LatAm financial institutions face complex internal and external pressures. Galileo's architecture is designed to address these concerns directly. We make sure our solution is a strategic asset, not an unreliable add-on.

Customer Concerns

LatAm banks evaluating a digital core face legitimate fears about disruption and risk:

• Fear of High Cost/Long Implementation: Banks are often concerned about the initial capital outlay and multi-year implementation timelines of traditional cores. Our approach is designed for faster, modular deployment, reducing both Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Time-to-Market.

• Fear of Disrupting Legacy Systems: Institutions can worry about "rip and replace" projects that jeopardize current operations. Cyberbank Digital's flexible API-driven architecture is built for co-existence, allowing institutions to modernize processes like onboarding without immediately replacing their entire core system.

• Fear of Vendor Lock-In: Traditional vendors limit innovation. Galileo's open architecture and product flexibility help ensure the bank, not the platform, controls the product roadmap and ecosystem integrations.

The Cyberbank Digital Advantage

Banks can select a solution based on clear, measurable criteria. Cyberbank Digital's inclusive onboarding platform is a direct expression of Galileo's core brand pillars:

Agility & Time-to-Market: Modular, pre-integrated onboarding modules allow for rapid, low-code deployment of new customer journeys, addressing the industry's need for speed.

Risk Management: Built-in, automated KYC/AML and fraud monitoring that supports the rapid volume of digital account openings while maintaining strict regulatory adherence.

Ecosystem Integration: An API-first design allows easy integration with local third-party providers (e.g., identity verification services, alternative data sources) to build the most comprehensive, inclusive process possible.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How can self-onboarding boost 'Technical Inclusion’?

Self-onboarding uses advanced technology to help eliminate geographical and bureaucratic barriers, ensuring product availability is not limited by a customer's location or access to a physical branch.

How does self-onboarding specifically help banks reach rural and underserved populations in LatAm?

By eliminating the mandatory physical branch visit, the fully online process can make banking accessible to individuals in remote areas where a smartphone is their primary tool for connectivity and commerce. This directly addresses the geographical barrier to access.

How does Cyberbank Digital's platform reduce friction during digital account opening?

The platform provides a streamlined, user-friendly, and device-agnostic design that can allow customers to open accounts in minutes. This speed and simplicity—backed by automated ID verification—helps eliminate the high drop-off rates associated with complex legacy systems.

How does an inclusive onboarding process impact a bank's security and compliance posture?

Built-in, secure ID verification and compliance tools help ensure that rapid, high-volume digital onboarding is managed securely and adheres to all local regulations like KYC/AML, supporting both growth and regulatory integrity.

How is the LatAm market responding to the growth of digital banking and fintechs?

The response is overwhelmingly positive. An AtlasIntel survey found that 85% of Brazilians view the growth of digital banks as beneficial, with the same proportion also agreeing it has significantly increased financial inclusion for low-income individuals.

How can LatAm banks assess the creditworthiness of customers without a formal credit history?

Inclusive platforms, like Galileo’s, are architecturally flexible to support alternative data methods. This includes using digital consumption habits, utility payment histories, or other non-traditional data points, a key method cited by the World Bank for serving the previously unbanked.

Galileo Financial Technologies, LLC is a technology company, not a bank. Galileo partners with many issuing banks to provide banking services in North and Latin America.