From silos to openness: when data starts to flow
For years, the financial system was built as a set of silos.
Each institution managed its information, processes, and decisions in isolation, with little incentive to share.
That model worked for decades.
However, today it is starting to show its limits.
In recent years, something has changed in a way that can’t be reversed: data openness has gone from being the exception to becoming the rule. With it, a new growth logic has begun to emerge—more connected, more dynamic, and above all, more people-centered.
The starting point: access to credit in Latin America
Latin America shares a paradox that is hard to ignore.
Across much of the region, everyday consumer credit coexists with significant barriers to long-term financing, such as housing or small business development.
While credit has recovered in several markets in recent years—at uneven speeds depending on the country—the gap with more mature economies remains significant. Overall, the region continues to show low levels of private credit relative to its size and economic potential.
To better understand this gap, it helps to look at the data.
In Brazil, credit to the private sector exceeds 75% of GDP, reflecting a deeper and more developed financial market.
By contrast, in countries such as Argentina, this indicator remains significantly lower (around 13–14% of GDP), highlighting more limited access to credit and a less developed financial system.
These differences reflect more than just varying levels of financial development. They also reveal fragmented access models, high costs, limited mobility between institutions, and constrained risk assessment frameworks.
Even so, the landscape is beginning to change.
Across Latin America, access to credit through fintechs continues to grow steadily and now represents a meaningful share of lending in several countries.
In this context, a common regional need emerges: rethinking how financial data circulates in order to expand access, improve competition, and enable better decision-making.
Open Finance in LATAM: different speeds, the same direction
In response to these structural tensions, Open Finance has begun to take shape in Latin America as a long-term answer.
Today, the transition toward open financial systems is already underway. However, it is progressing at different speeds and under diverse regulatory frameworks.
On one hand, Brazil clearly leads the process. Its ecosystem is among the most mature in the region and is supported by a robust API infrastructure that includes banks, fintechs, insurers, and even investment firms.
On the other, Mexico laid the groundwork with a pioneering Fintech Law. Building on that framework, the country first advanced Open Banking and then moved toward a more comprehensive Open Finance model.
In Chile’s case, progress accelerated in 2023 with the approval of its Fintech Law. This regulation incorporates principles of interoperability and informed consent, and its implementation is expected to speed up adoption.
Meanwhile, Colombia and Peru are moving forward through pilot initiatives. In both cases, the focus is on defining API standards and security protocols.
Argentina, by contrast, remains at an early stage. While private initiatives are exploring data-sharing models, a formal regulatory framework is still lacking.
Despite these differences, the direction is clear.
The region is moving—gradually but steadily—toward financial systems that are more open, competitive, and user-centered.
Open Finance: changing the logic of control
Open Finance is built on a simple yet powerful idea: giving users control over their own financial data.
Until now, information about income, spending, and payment behavior has remained locked inside institutions. Banks, digital wallets, and financial service providers owned that data.
The Open Finance model challenges this logic. With explicit consent, individuals can allow a fintech to access their banking history in order to receive a better credit offer. Likewise, they can enable their bank to view data from their digital wallet and, in turn, access a more attractive mortgage.
As a result, competition intensifies. At the same time, costs decrease, financial inclusion improves, and innovation accelerates.
Brazil offers a concrete example of this impact. There, Open Finance data already accounts for nearly 20% of the weight in credit risk assessments. Thanks to this, institutions can now offer credit lines up to 30% larger.
The API Economy: the invisible infrastructure that connects everything
Behind any open model lies a less visible—but essential—layer: APIs.
Application Programming Interfaces act as bridges. They allow financial, marketing, and data platforms to communicate with one another in a secure, standardized, and scalable way.
That’s why the API economy has become more than a technical trend. It represents a new economic infrastructure. In practice, it turns interoperability into a competitive advantage, reduces integration costs, and enables continuous innovation cycles. Moreover, it accelerates the creation of new services and, in many cases, reshapes entire industries.
Initiatives like Open Gateway—driven by the world’s leading telecommunications companies—illustrate how far this approach can go. From fraud prevention to user authentication, the real value lies not just in the data itself, but in how it is shared, connected, and activated.
When finance and marketing start speaking the same language
This structural shift is not limited to finance.
A very similar transformation is taking place in marketing and technology.
Within the martech ecosystem, more and more companies are working to unify and activate data through open, secure integrations. The goal is clear: better understand users, personalize experiences, and optimize resources.
In both worlds—finance and marketing—the logic is the same.
Data interoperability, enabled by APIs, becomes the foundation for better decisions.
Ultimately, this is not just about technology.
It’s about turning fragmented data into smarter—and more human—decisions.
Open Growth: applying openness to growth
At Minders, we believe the same logic that powers Open Finance can be applied to brand growth.
We call this approach Open Growth. It’s a model where data flows across teams, decisions are made in real time, and technology shifts from being a barrier to becoming a bridge.
Just as Open Finance expands access to credit and improves competition, Open Growth enables more agile, measurable, and effective marketing strategies to scale.
In both cases, the foundation is the same: open infrastructure, strong integrations, and a genuinely user-centered mindset.
Designing infrastructure for growth
At Minders, this is exactly where we operate.
We help companies turn data into decisions, decisions into action, and action into growth.
From strategy through implementation, we partner with teams to build open and efficient systems—designed not only to compete today, but also to learn and evolve over time.
