FEATURE access to lending and constraining economic participation.
AI is changing that equation. By incorporating alternative data such as utility payments, mobile usage, rental histories and behavioral indicators, financial institutions can now assess risk more accurately for thin-file and first-time borrowers.
Latin America’ s financial sector sits at the intersection of urgency and opportunity. models by as much as 85 % in predictive accuracy, fundamentally reshaping how risk is evaluated.
The commercial opportunity is substantial. Estimates suggest that reaching even 10 percent of the excluded population could unlock tens of billions of dollars in new lending annually across Latin America.
Machine learning models analyze patterns at scale, enabling faster decisions while maintaining credit discipline.
Early adopters are already demonstrating the impact. In Mexico and Brazil, fintech lenders using AI-based underwriting have processed billions of dollars in loan applications from customers without traditional credit records.
Studies cited in the report show that AI-driven credit scoring can outperform conventional
For banks, this represents not only new revenue but also a pathway to long-term customer relationships that begin with basic credit products and expand over time.
Beyond lending, AI is also redefining how institutions grow wallet share in competitive retail banking markets. As challenger banks and superapps raise customer expectations, incumbents are turning to advanced analytics to move beyond generic campaigns and toward precise, real-time engagement. www. intelligentcio. com
INTELLIGENT CIO LATAM
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