Insights from Galileo's Technical Inclusion Index

The Americas have seen remarkable progress in financial inclusion, both in terms of account ownership and digital accessibility. However, significant gaps remain. Despite many companies' genuine commitment to financial inclusion, technical barriers within business operations and products are holding back these providers’ potential to deliver truly inclusive services—and also hindering their own business growth. 

Galileo Financial Technologies’ inaugural Technical Inclusion Index brings new insights from more than 600 CTOs and CIOs from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and the United States in the banking/finance, IT/telecommunications, retail, and travel/hospitality sectors. 

Key Takeaways

• Business losses: Nearly half of survey respondents believe they have lost significant potential business due to lack of truly inclusive technology

• Launch difficulties: A significant portion reported that launching new inclusive features remains difficult or currently unthinkable

• Project delays: Many institutions have delayed or cancelled multiple projects targeting new customer segments

• Technical awareness: The vast majority agreed that inclusion is fundamentally a technical and technology issue

What Is Technical Inclusion?

Technical inclusion is defined as the delivery and availability of products and services to all sections of society on equal or equivalent terms, irrespective of their age, gender, location, or other abilities.

Understanding the connection between a company's technical performance and its ability to deliver services is vital for customer-facing companies in the US and Latin America to reach the fullest cross-section of society.

What Are the Hidden Costs of Technical Exclusion?

Galileo's survey revealed that the lack of technical inclusion in the US and Latin America is already costing companies in real terms. Perhaps most striking is how Latin American leaders showed more awareness of technical inclusion challenges, while their US peers signaled more willingness to deliver it.

Latin American respondents demonstrated stronger agreement that an organization's ability to deliver products and services to diverse customers depends on technical infrastructure performance. However, US respondents showed higher confidence that leadership will prioritize inclusion in future technical modernization efforts.

Regional Strengths Create Complementary Opportunities

Latin American Advantages:

• Higher awareness of technical inclusion challenges

• Greater willingness to undertake radical system overhauls

• Strong recognition of the business impact of technical exclusion

• Experience rapidly scaling financial inclusion

United States Advantages:

• Higher leadership commitment to inclusion priorities

• Better existing data integration

• Lower organizational resistance to change

• More focus on user experience optimization

What Are the Barriers to Technical Inclusion?

1. Data Silos and Lack of Interoperability Between Systems

Data silos emerged as the single biggest technical challenge limiting inclusive service delivery. The problem is more acute in Latin America, where respondents expressed significantly higher concern about data silos compared to US counterparts.

However, US institutions demonstrate some advantages in data integration, with a higher proportion reporting complete elimination of data silos. Even with this advantage, the overwhelming majority of all respondents believe data silos hinder their ability to deliver relevant experiences to diverse customer segments.

When asked about their internal data landscape, fewer Latin American respondents agreed that data flows freely and remains accessible across systems. This suggests that while both regions struggle with fragmentation, US banks have made incrementally more progress toward unified customer data platforms.

Country-Specific Data Challenges:

• Colombia: Shows highest concern about data silos limiting service delivery

• Argentina: Demonstrates best performance in Latin America for data integration

• Brazil: Significantly more likely to identify lack of user data as a challenge

The data silo challenge extends beyond simple system integration. When customer information exists in separate, disconnected databases, banks cannot develop the comprehensive understanding necessary to serve diverse populations effectively. This fragmentation particularly impacts customers with non-traditional financial profiles who require holistic assessment rather than single-product evaluation.

2. Network Incompatibilities Between Legacy and New Infrastructure

Half of all respondents cited network incompatibilities between legacy and new infrastructure as a significant technical challenge. This issue proves more concerning for Latin American leaders compared to their US counterparts.

The legacy system burden falls differently across regions. US institutions carry significantly higher legacy costs, with the vast majority spending substantial portions of their IT budgets on legacy maintenance. Many US banks dedicate more than half their entire IT budget to maintaining old systems.

Despite lower costs, Latin American leaders feel the impact of legacy systems more acutely. A significantly higher proportion of Latin American respondents agree legacy systems limit inclusive delivery compared to US respondents. This paradox suggests that newer infrastructure in Latin America, while less costly to maintain, faces greater strain from rapid growth and expanding financial inclusion demands.

Legacy System Impact by Country:

• Colombia: Shows highest awareness that legacy systems limit inclusive delivery

• United States: Expresses lower concern despite carrying the highest maintenance costs

• Argentina: Finance sector faces particularly acute legacy burden with some institutions spending the majority of IT budgets on maintenance

The challenge isn't simply the age of systems but their fundamental architecture. Legacy platforms were designed for traditional banking models serving established customer bases. Adapting these systems to serve previously unbanked populations with different needs, behaviors, and risk profiles requires extensive modification or complete replacement.

3. Balancing Multi-Device Access with Security Requirements

Security concerns create inherent tensions between protection and accessibility, with a significant portion of respondents struggling to balance multi-device access with security requirements. The majority agree that security concerns slow efforts to make services more accessible.

Latin American leaders express substantially higher concern than US counterparts. This differential likely reflects distinct threat environments—Latin American institutions must protect against region-specific fraud patterns including unauthorized remittances, identity theft targeting mobile payments, and sophisticated scams exploiting regional payment preferences.

The security challenge extends beyond threat mitigation to encompass authentication architecture, fraud detection systems, and access control frameworks. Traditional security models often rely on device recognition, geographic consistency, and behavioral pattern matching—approaches that can inadvertently flag legitimate transactions from underserved populations exhibiting non-typical usage patterns.

How Do US and LatAm Tech Priorities Differ?

One of the survey’s most remarkable findings is how US and Latin American leaders prioritize different parts of their technology stack when identifying barriers to inclusive service delivery.

Latin America Prioritizes Back-End Infrastructure

Latin American institutions cite back-end infrastructure problems as their primary constraint, followed by data architecture limitations, with front-end and user interface challenges ranking third. This infrastructure-first orientation reflects Latin America's shorter digital transformation timeline.

Many markets simultaneously pursued financial inclusion expansion and digital service deployment, necessitating focus on system reliability and transaction processing capacity before user experience optimization. When systems must handle rapid growth in transaction volume while maintaining uptime, back-end performance becomes paramount.

United States Focuses on User Experience

US institutions identify front-end and user interface barriers as their primary constraint, followed by back-end infrastructure issues, with data architecture challenges ranking third. US banking technology leaders operate from a foundation of relatively stable infrastructure, enabling attention to shift toward customer experience optimization.

This focus suggests US institutions have largely addressed foundational infrastructure stability and now work to make reliable systems more accessible to diverse populations. The emphasis on interface improvements, accessibility features, and user journey refinement reflects a different stage of digital maturity.

This divergence creates valuable learning opportunities. Latin American infrastructure rigor prevents catastrophic failures during peak demand. US experience optimization delivers superior customer interactions when infrastructure performs reliably. The ideal approach combines both—robust back-end infrastructure supporting sophisticated, accessible front-end experiences.

What Is the Quantifiable Business Impact?

1. Lost Revenue from Technical Barriers

Technical barriers translate directly to measurable business losses, with Latin American institutions experiencing disproportionate impact. More than half of Latin American institutions estimate losing significant potential business, compared to a lower but still substantial proportion of US institutions.

For severe business losses, Latin American institutions report significantly higher impact than their US counterparts. These metrics suggest Latin American banks forfeit substantial portions of addressable market opportunity due to technical constraints—a meaningful competitive disadvantage in rapidly growing financial services markets.

Sector-Specific Impact:

• Mexico's travel and hospitality sector shows highest concern about business losses

• Mexico's IT and telecommunications sector reports particularly severe losses

• Multiple sectors across countries acknowledge meaningful revenue attrition

2. Delayed and Cancelled Innovation Projects

Technical limitations fundamentally constrain innovation capacity and market expansion. The majority of Latin American institutions have delayed or cancelled multiple projects in the past year due to infrastructure limitations, compared to a lower but still significant proportion of US institutions.

Colombia reports the highest project cancellation rates across all surveyed countries. Each cancelled project represents foregone market opportunity and delayed competitive response in serving previously unaddressed customer segments. The cumulative effect over multiple fiscal periods compounds, creating widening capability gaps.

3. Poor Performance During Peak Demand

System performance during high-traffic events reveals critical inclusivity failures. Latin American systems demonstrate higher rates of poor performance during peak periods compared to US systems.

Performance degradation during culturally significant periods—Christmas bonus (aguinaldo) season in Latin America, tax refund periods, holiday shopping—disproportionately affects customers whose financial access depends on specific times. System failures during these moments erode trust and drive customers toward competitors with more resilient infrastructure.

Sector-Specific Performance Issues:

• Colombia's retail, hotels, and food services sector reports highest rates of very poor performance

• Brazil's finance and travel sectors experience significant degradation during peak events

• Peak period failures particularly impact underserved populations

Banks Are Committed to Expanding Technical Inclusion

Despite recognizing significant challenges, both US and Latin American leaders show strong commitment to implementing technical inclusion, the study found.

Strong Modernization Intent

The majority of banks across both regions consider updating systems to accommodate diverse customers an important concern or strong priority. Most believe leadership will likely prioritize inclusion in future modernization efforts. A substantial portion would keep less than half their current tech stack if redesigning for inclusion.

However, regional differences in implementation capacity remain. US leadership shows stronger commitment compared to Latin America, while Latin American leaders demonstrate greater willingness for radical change—a higher proportion believe most systems need complete replacement.

Low Expected Resistance

More than half across both regions expect little to no organizational resistance to inclusion-focused modernization mandates. US banks expect even less resistance, with a significant portion anticipating zero pushback. This organizational readiness represents a meaningful implementation advantage.

However, sector-specific resistance exists. A substantial portion of US finance sector respondents consider leadership prioritization unlikely, suggesting concentrated resistance within banking itself requiring targeted strategies.

How Can Banks Achieve Technical Inclusion?

Based on survey findings, successful technical inclusion requires addressing four key areas:

1. Infrastructure Modernization

Moving beyond legacy systems that limit scalability and integration remains fundamental. This challenge is particularly acute for US banks given their legacy burden, though all markets benefit from cloud-native, developer-friendly, regulation-ready solutions.

Modernization Priorities:

• Cloud-native technologies enabling automatic scaling during peak demand

• Developer-friendly APIs facilitating system connections across organizational silos

• Regulation-ready solutions meeting compliance requirements in each operating jurisdiction

• Phased rollouts allowing testing and refinement before full deployment

The modernization challenge extends beyond technology selection to organizational change management. Legacy systems often embed business processes, compliance frameworks, and institutional knowledge. Successful modernization requires coordinating technical migration with process redesign and staff retraining.

2. Data Integration

Breaking down silos that prevent comprehensive customer understanding is critical. While US banks show marginal advantages here, both regions require continued focus.

Integration Requirements:

• Unified customer views across all banking channels and touchpoints

• Real-time data access enabling personalized service delivery

• Cross-border functionality supporting remittances and international transactions

• Mobile-first design aligned with regional customer device preferences

Data integration isn't merely technical plumbing. It fundamentally changes how institutions understand and serve customers. When data flows freely, banks can identify needs proactively, offer relevant products at appropriate moments, and serve customers through their preferred channels seamlessly.

3. Security Balance

Implementing security that enables rather than restricts access requires nuanced approaches calibrated to regional threat environments.

Security Considerations:

• Multi-device access without excessive friction for verified customers

• Cultural context awareness preventing false alarms during regional events and holidays

• Adaptive learning systems improving over time

• Protection against market-specific fraud patterns

The security-inclusion balance requires moving beyond rules-based systems toward adaptive models. Machine learning approaches can distinguish legitimate customer behavior from fraudulent activity without overly restrictive controls that inadvertently exclude underserved populations.

4. Cultural Alignment

Ensuring organizational readiness supports technical changes. US banks demonstrate stronger leadership commitment, while Latin American banks show greater awareness of why change matters.

Readiness Factors:

• Leadership commitment to inclusion priorities at executive level

• Staff training on inclusive service delivery

• Testing with diverse customer segments

• Flexibility adapting to local conditions

Cultural alignment often proves more challenging than technical implementation. Organizations must shift from viewing inclusion as a compliance obligation to recognizing it as a competitive advantage. This requires changing incentive structures, success metrics, and institutional mindsets.

From Awareness to Action

The Galileo Technical Inclusion Index reveals a critical inflection point for banking across the Americas. Technical barriers are driving quantifiable revenue losses, constrained innovation capacity, and widening competitive gaps. The complementary strengths of Latin American awareness and US implementation readiness create opportunities for cross-regional learning that can accelerate progress for both markets. Institutions that move decisively to break down data silos, modernize legacy systems, and reimagine security frameworks will capture valuable  market share as previously underserved populations gain financial access.

Download the full Technical Inclusion Index report to access detailed sector breakdowns, country-specific analysis, implementation roadmaps, ROI frameworks, and expert perspectives from banking technology leaders who successfully navigated modernization. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What is technical inclusion in banking?

Technical inclusion is the delivery and availability of financial products and services to all sections of society on equal or equivalent terms, irrespective of age, gender, location, or other abilities. Its opposite, technical exclusion, occurs when certain groups experience underrepresentation or reduced access to financial services due to technical limitations rather than policy decisions.

Why do data silos create barriers to financial inclusion?

Data silos prevent banks from developing comprehensive customer views necessary for personalized service delivery. When customer information exists in separate, disconnected systems, banks cannot understand complete financial situations, anticipate needs, or offer appropriate products to underserved populations. This fragmentation particularly impacts customers with non-traditional financial profiles who require holistic assessment rather than single-product evaluation.

How much are banks losing due to technical barriers?

The survey reveals substantial losses: 48% of banks across the Americas believe they're losing 10% or more of potential business due to inadequate inclusive technology. Latin American institutions experience higher impact, with 55% estimating 10%+ losses compared to 40% of US banks. For severe losses (20%+ of potential revenue), 26% of Latin American and 15% of US institutions report this level of impact.

Why do US banks spend more on legacy systems but feel less impact?

US banks allocate disproportionately higher budgets to legacy maintenance (85% spending over 25% of IT budgets) because their infrastructure is older and more deeply embedded. However, they report lower perceived impact on inclusive delivery (60% agree legacy limits inclusion vs. 75% in Latin America) because these mature systems maintain operational stability. Latin American banks, despite lower legacy costs, feel greater constraints as rapid growth and financial inclusion expansion strain newer infrastructure.

What's the difference between Latin American and US banking technology priorities?

Latin American banks prioritize back-end infrastructure (59% cite this as primary weakness) because rapid digital transformation required focus on system reliability before user experience optimization. US banks focus on front-end/user interface improvements (59% cite this as primary weakness) because they operate from stable infrastructure foundations and now optimize customer experience. This creates complementary strengths—Latin American infrastructure rigor prevents failures while US experience focus delivers superior interactions.

How do security requirements conflict with financial inclusion?

Security measures designed for traditional customer profiles can inadvertently flag legitimate transactions from underserved populations exhibiting non-typical patterns. Multi-device access requirements, geographic consistency expectations, and behavioral pattern matching may block legitimate customers who access services irregularly, from varying locations, or using shared devices. Sixty-eight percent of respondents acknowledge that security concerns slow efforts to make services more accessible.

Which country shows the highest awareness of technical inclusion challenges?

Colombia demonstrates the highest awareness, with 56% strongly agreeing that inclusion is fundamentally a technical issue (highest proportion across all countries). Colombian banks also show highest concern about data silos (64%) and security vulnerabilities (46%) slowing inclusion efforts. This awareness likely stems from aggressive financial inclusion initiatives encountering infrastructure limitations when expanding to previously unserved populations.

Why are Latin American banks canceling more projects than US banks?

Sixty-one percent of Latin American banks delayed or cancelled 5+ projects in the past 12 months due to infrastructure limitations, compared to 45% of US banks. For severe constraints (10+ projects), 30% of Latin American vs. 20% of US institutions report this impact. The higher cancellation rates reflect infrastructure strain from rapid growth, expanding financial inclusion demands, and network incompatibilities between legacy and new systems—challenges cited by 54% of Latin American leaders vs. 44% in the US.

How do systems perform during high-traffic events in each region?

Thirty percent of Latin American banking systems perform poorly or very poorly during high-traffic events, compared to 20% in the US. These performance issues during peak demand—Christmas bonus season, tax refund periods, holiday shopping—disproportionately impact underserved customers whose financial access depends on specific temporal windows. Colombia's retail and hospitality sector reports the highest proportion of very poor performance, while Brazil's finance and travel sectors also experience significant degradation.

What percentage of banks are willing to modernize their technology?

Forty-six percent of banks across the Americas would keep less than half their current tech stack if redesigning for inclusion, indicating substantial willingness for change. Latin American banks show greater appetite for radical change, with 22% believing most systems need complete replacement vs. 15% in the US. Additionally, 57% expect little to no organizational resistance to inclusion-focused modernization mandates, suggesting strong implementation potential.

How can banks measure technical inclusion progress?

Banks should track multiple metrics: business losses attributable to technical barriers, project completion rates for inclusive features, system performance during high-traffic events across all customer segments, data integration progress across silos, and customer access patterns by demographic cohort. Brazil particularly struggles here, being three times more likely than Argentina to identify inadequate user data for measuring inclusivity as a challenge.

What role does leadership commitment play in technical inclusion?

Leadership commitment proves critical for implementation success. Seventy-five percent of US respondents expect leadership to prioritize inclusion in future modernization (highest across all countries), contributing to their stronger implementation capacity. In contrast, 69% of Latin American leaders expect this prioritization. However, 40% of US finance sector respondents consider leadership prioritization unlikely, suggesting sector-specific resistance requiring targeted strategies.