MELI Jan 2025 910.000 call

MercadoLibre's fintech arm sees credit-card reader boom in Mexico

Latin American e-commerce giant MercadoLibre's fintech arm, Mercado Pago, has seen adoption of its slim mobile credit-card readers more than double in the past year, gaining on competing options from banks and Clip, an executive said. In Mexico, cash is still king - and as Latin America's No. 2 economy, it still lags far behind Brazil in terms of digitalization, Brigitte Brousset, Mercado Pago's head of financing for merchants in Mexico, told Reuters. Brazil had been in a similar situation, but credit card adoption was quick and central bank-backed system Pix is now threatening to take over digital payments.