Study highlights how increasing digital payment acceptance can help unlock business growth in PR.

By THE STAR STAFF

A new regional study by Mastercard and Payments and Commerce Market Intelligence (PCMI) highlights a strong trend of merchants and small businesses across Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean increasingly accepting digital payments. The report illustrates how the shift helps merchants reach more customers, operate more efficiently and support stronger local economies.

As commerce becomes more digital, connected and data-driven, the acceptance infrastructure built today will shape how fully merchants can participate in the economy of the next decade. A 2030-ready economy requires businesses to meet evolving consumer expectations, adopt secure technologies, and compete effectively in a digital marketplace. Expanding modern, scalable acceptance is essential to ensure that growing digital demand translates into higher productivity, broader inclusion and resilient business growth.

“Puerto Rico presents a clear opportunity to bring more businesses into the digital payments’ ecosystem at a time when cash still accounts for a significant share of everyday transactions,” said Pablo Cuarón, country manager for Puerto Rico at Mastercard. “Helping close this gap will be key to enabling businesses to reach more customers, operate more efficiently, and fully participate in Puerto Rico’s digital economy.” 

The report, “Powering the future of commerce in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean: Scaling digital acceptance for a 2030-ready economy,” highlights that in Puerto Rico, 15% of small merchants have a point-of-sale (POS) solution to accept digital payments. With just 20 POS terminals per 1,000 inhabitants, there is clear room to expand acceptance across the island.

The study highlights a clear takeaway: as more consumers shift toward digital payments, expanding acceptance across micro and small merchants and diverse underpenetrated verticals, including transit, SMEs, housing and tourism, can help merchants capture additional sales and better serve customer preferences.

However, cash remains widely used for everyday purchases, reinforcing the opportunity to further accelerate digital acceptance. Across the region, cash accounts for an estimated 58% of personal consumption payment volume; in Puerto Rico, it represents approximately 35% of personal consumption expenditure.

At the same time, advances in payment technology are making digital transactions faster and more seamless for both consumers and businesses. The report highlights the growing role of contactless payments in streamlining checkout and enhancing convenience.

Adoption is already strong in parts of the region, while still offering room for growth. The study estimates contactless usage at 34% in Mexico, 83% in Central America, and 73% in the Caribbean; in Puerto Rico, it stands at 74% -- highlighting both strong adoption in parts of the region and the opportunity to further expand tap-to-pay experiences for consumers and merchants.

“The region doesn’t have a digital payments demand problem -- it has an acceptance gap,” said Lindsay Lehr Tutson, managing director at PCMI. “This gap can be closed by deploying new business models, fit-for-purpose technology, innovative merchant services and ecosystem collaboration that deliver true value for both merchants and customers, creating unprecedented industry scale and dynamism.”

Expanding digital acceptance can help merchants get paid faster, reduce the risks of handling cash, reach more customers -- including online -- and build a transaction history that can support access to services such as credit.

As the region advances toward a 2030-ready economy, Mastercard technology is supporting the scale of modern acceptance through cloud platforms, tokenization, biometrics, AI-driven services and embedded payments -- helping make payments faster, more secure, and seamless for businesses of all sizes.

With those capabilities increasingly accessible, the focus now is on scaling adoption.