Miami, Nov 6 (EFE).— The need to boost investment in sustainability and reinforce the economic resilience of Latin America and the Caribbean took center stage at the close of FinnLAC 2025, where two days of debates and collaboration focused on expanding fintech penetration and financial accessibility across the region.
“Take the Caribbean, for example, which faces many hurricanes and climate events. The key is to learn how to prevent and plan for them so that when one of these shocks hits, we have things more under control,” said Marisela Alvarenga, managing director and head of the financial sector division at IDB Invest, the private investment arm of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group, in an interview with EFE.
Alvarenga said resilience must be understood broadly, from how homes are built to withstand flooding to how entire cities are planned so infrastructure can adapt to storms and rising water levels.
“For us, it’s key to consider adaptation and to consider access, which we’ve discussed here at FinnLAC 2025. To talk about access, about financing,” she said of the forum, held Nov. 4–5 at Miami’s InterContinental Downtown hotel.
Boosting insurance uptake
FinnLAC’s closing day highlighted the need to expand insurance coverage in the region, a crucial pillar of resilience and economic planning. One example came from Mi Compa, a Mexican startup that uses digital channels to broaden access to insurance.
Álvaro Madrigal, co-founder and CEO of Mi Compa, said Mexico “is a country without a real insurance culture, but when you go out on the street, you see that people do want insurance.”
To overcome obstacles faced by many low-income consumers — including lack of understanding, cost barriers, and limited access — Mi Compa uses colloquial product names and sells through social media and messaging platforms, reducing policy costs by up to 70% with support from multiple insurers.
Sustainability and the blue economy
The forum also highlighted blue economy initiatives linked to the protection and management of water resources, reinforcing that “sustainability is a way of doing business. It’s no longer something extra,” Alvarenga noted.
One example discussed was Ecuador’s Banco Bolivariano blue bond, an $80 million issuance to finance sustainable coastal projects in a country where roughly 300,000 people depend directly or indirectly on the shrimp industry, its top export.
Other initiatives included a blue bond in Colombia, jointly launched by BBVA and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Another was sustainable credit lines from Banco Agrícola in El Salvador, a country facing high deforestation and water scarcity.
Collaboration remains the path forward
FinnLAC concluded with a clear takeaway: public-private collaboration is indispensable to transform financial ecosystems, expand fintech adoption, and strengthen financial health across the region.
The forum brought together around 70 speakers and more than 500 participants from banking, government and business sectors representing 30 countries. It included 20 sessions and product demonstrations focused on the opportunities offered by financial digitalization in Latin America and the Caribbean. EFE
EFE published this report with the support of the IDB.