ACI Worldwide and dLocal have partnered to give global merchants access to local payment methods in Brazil and Mexico.
The companies plan to extend coverage to Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Peru in a future phase.
Merchants can now onboard and process transactions using six local payment methods across the two markets: Pix, PicPay, Mercado Pago, and NuPay in Brazil, and Mercado Pago, OXXO, and SPEI in Mexico. In addition, the arrangement allows ACI's enterprise merchants and fintech partners to expand into Latin America through one integration, while retaining control over their payment strategy and routing decisions.
dLocal contributes its local payment network and regional coverage to ACI's orchestration platform, which combines transaction routing, fraud prevention, and payments intelligence tools. According to the companies, this reduces the integration work merchants would otherwise need to undertake market by market.
A fragmented regional market
Latin America has more than 638 million consumers, with internet penetration above 75% and smartphone adoption above 80%, according to figures cited by ACI and dLocal. Payment preferences differ considerably between markets. Alternative payment methods, including e-wallets, real-time bank transfers, and instant payment schemes, account for around 50% of online transactions across the region and are already the dominant method in several countries.
Brazil's Pix instant payment system has surpassed 170 million users, while account-to-account transfers are commonly used in e-commerce in markets such as Colombia. The companies note that reliance on card payments alone can restrict conversion opportunities in some of the region's digital commerce markets.
Moreover, company representatives said the partnership is intended to address the operational complexity merchants face when entering new markets, positioning it as a way to combine local payment method access with orchestration and fraud management under a single platform. ACI cited internal research indicating that 96% of merchants using multiple acquirers report higher revenue, and that nearly two-thirds identify payment flexibility as a factor in growth.
The rollout begins with Brazil and Mexico, with the additional four markets (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Peru) planned for a subsequent phase. No specific timeline was given for this expansion.
