Banking and fintechs in Latin America: the IT infrastructure that strengthens their role as an economic engine

• Financial institutions in Latin America are redesigning their IT infrastructure to guarantee availability, security and digital transformation, an opportunity for resellers and integrators.

Banking and financial services are among the most demanding sectors in terms of technological performance, requiring 24/7 online availability, data integrity and cybersecurity as minimum requirements, not as differentiators. As in other data-driven industries, technological acceleration, new regulations and the expectation of seamless digital experiences are forcing financial institutions to redesign their technology environments with IT infrastructures that must not only operate reliably but also enable digital transformation to accelerate.

This new paradigm represents a concrete opportunity for the IT distribution network, including resellers, integrators and service providers that deliver technological solutions to financial institutions. According to recent data, 52% of financial institutions in Latin America are strengthening their technology stacks or have immediate plans to do so. Many of them recognise that their current infrastructure is the main obstacle to deploying new capabilities, such as hyper-personalisation, frictionless customer experiences, fraud prevention, new product development, automation, predictive analytics and wider financial inclusion. Closing that gap can have real economic impact: Accenture estimates that the use of artificial intelligence represents GDP growth of 2.8% for various Latin American countries.

“The real challenge for IT teams is not only guaranteeing operational continuity, but anticipating change and preparing an infrastructure capable of integrating emerging technologies, thereby enabling continuous digital transformation in banking,” explains Gustavo Pérez, Business Development Director for Vertiv Latin America. “For the ecosystem of developers and integrators this is an opportunity to support financial institutions in adopting more flexible architectures — such as edge computing — that allow the integration of artificial intelligence and blockchain solutions. All of this without losing sight of critical priorities such as energy efficiency, operational redundancy and cyber resilience.”

A New Layer of Complexity… and Opportunity

IT infrastructure today plays a far more strategic role: it supports critical operations, enables complex digital services, allows advanced analytical capabilities and guarantees availability at all times. Data centres — whether on-premises, hybrid or distributed — are at the heart of the digital transformation of banking infrastructure. Their design and performance determine the responsiveness of the entire financial system.

“The sector faces an unprecedented combination of risks and opportunities: intermittent connectivity, often caused by infrastructure limitations, unreliable power supply and uneven network coverage in certain regions, which can compromise essential services; increasingly sophisticated cyber threats; pressure to offer availability across multichannel environments; and users who expect frictionless digital experiences,” warns Pérez. “This complexity opens a clear window for integrators and specialists to offer solutions capable of mitigating operational risk while enabling scalable growth into the future.”

Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) are also rewriting the rules of the game. Fintechs and new digital players are using AI to scale quickly, cut costs and personalise services. Traditional banks cannot be left behind. And to transform, they need partners with experience in critical infrastructure, energy management, resilient connectivity and automation.

“Modernising banking infrastructure is an immediate necessity, and investing in it and adopting it represents an opportunity to position yourself as a strategic enabler of

digital transformation in a sector such as banking, which cannot afford to fail,” concludes the Vertiv expert.

A strategic business opportunity

This opportunity demands more than individual solutions; it requires complete, distributed and secure architectures that respond to the growing needs of operational continuity, energy efficiency, intelligent automation and constant availability. Commercial partners that build these capabilities into their value proposition will widen their portfolio and gain access to new business opportunities and stronger relationships with financial institutions undergoing transformation.

But which technologies are driving banking’s digital transformation? Pérez highlights the following:

· Modernisation of hybrid and distributed data centres. Institutions are looking for infrastructures ready to grow in multicloud environments, operating with energy efficiency and offering redundancy and continuity. That requires advanced equipment, intelligent cooling, remote management and the capacity to scale without interruption.

· Edge computing as a critical layer. Real-time financial applications — from digital onboarding to predictive analytics — require processing close to the data source. Designing, implementing and maintaining these edge nodes is a growing need that has to be met.

· Cybersecurity built in from the design stage. As architectures become more distributed, so do threats. Zero trust solutions, end-to-end encryption and technologies such as blockchain are key to protecting sensitive data and complying with regulations. Integrators with security experience have a clear competitive advantage, especially when they offer comprehensive solutions such as Vertiv’s secure KVM switches to prevent unauthorised access, remote access systems that guarantee encrypted connectivity, and vulnerability management through its security incident response team (SIRT), which actively monitors and responds to emerging threats.

· Autonomous operations driven by artificial intelligence. These capabilities allow financial institutions to speed up decision-making, minimise errors and improve efficiency. For commercial partners, integrating solutions that support AI raises their offer from conventional infrastructure to intelligent systems that support scalable, agile and future-ready operations.

· High-performance networks for a connected ecosystem. Financial institutions need networks with high bandwidth, low latency and adaptability to support data flows between the core, the edge and the cloud. Here, distributors can play a key role in designing and implementing critical connectivity. For integrators, developers, consultants and technology distributors, this is the moment to establish themselves as key partners for banking clients on their path towards more resilient, intelligent and future-ready data centres. Vertiv, with wide experience in critical digital infrastructure solutions, offers a robust portfolio and comprehensive technical support to face the current challenges of the financial sector.