Single payments API for LatAm: SPEI*, PIX and PSE

Integrating country by country in Latin America creates technical debt, costs, and risks. A single payments API provides standardized access to SPEI* API (Mexico), PIX API (Brazil), PSE integration (Colombia), and CVU/CBU payments (Argentina) under one contract. It enables multi-rail payments, embedded FX payments, and real-time reconciliation, with built-in compliance. The result: faster launches, reduced need for prefunding, and treasury automation with full visibility.

While instant payments LatAm are growing rapidly, each country operates its own rail, standards, and regulations. For a PSP payments platform or those building money transmitter solutions, expansion often means multiple local integrations: different data models, currencies, operating windows, and onboarding rules.

This payment rail abstraction “one-by-one” approach creates inefficiencies: siloed reconciliations, higher operational costs, fragile compliance processes, and limited scalability. Teams spend more time fixing integrations than innovating for end-users.

What is a unified payments endpoint?

A unified payments endpoint is a Latin America payments API that consolidates access to SPEI* collections, PIX payouts, PSE pay-ins, and CVU/CBU pay-outs. By standardizing operations through a pay-ins and pay-outs API, businesses can treat multiple rails as one, reducing complexity with payment orchestration LatAm.

It delivers:

• Standardized flows: one logic for payments and settlements across countries.
• Multi-currency settlement: automated handling of MXN, BRL, ARS, COP, and USD.
• Embedded FX payments: seamless conversion in the same transaction flow.
• Real-time reconciliation: a unified ledger, signed webhooks, and reference IDs.

Technical layers of the single payments API

1) Developer and integration resources

A strong pay-ins and pay-outs API must provide:

• A consistent multi-rail payments model with predictable error handling.
• Clear integration guides for end-to-end payment flows.
• A sandbox to simulate cross-border payments Latin America without moving real money.
• Observability for payments: tools for monitoring latency and acceptance rates, throughput, and routing by country.
• Security and compliance documentation supporting AML/KYC for payments.

These resources lower the adoption curve and mitigate risk, even when decision-makers are not the developers themselves.

2) Security, reliability and SLAs

A production-ready platform must qualify as an ISO 27001 payment platform with 99.9% uptime SLA for critical services. Strong authentication, encryption, and signed webhooks provide integrity, while continuous AML monitoring and regulatory payment compliance LatAm keep operations safe.

3) Reconciliation, reporting and compliance

Automated reconciliation and reporting empower treasury automation across multiple rails and currencies. Compliance-ready workflows (KYC/KYB, AML screening, destination validation) ensure smooth settlements and transparent audits.

Business impact: speed, liquidity and control

Faster launches

With a unified payments endpoint, launches in 3–4 weeks replace traditional 6–9 month integration cycles. The Latin America payments API model accelerates go-to-market while lowering engineering costs.

Improved liquidity

The multi-currency settlement model avoids prefunding multiple local accounts. Instead, companies use centralized balances with on-demand FX—unlocking capital efficiency.

Smarter treasury

Treasury automation provides dashboards for balances, flows, FX, and performance KPIs. Routing by cost and speed ensures optimal results per transaction.

Your evaluation checklist

• Coverage: Does the API provide SPEI* collections, PIX payouts, PSE pay-ins, and CVU/CBU pay-outs?
• Standardization: Is it a single pay-ins and pay-outs API across rails?
• Reliability: Is there a 99.9% uptime SLA?
• Compliance: Does it support AML/KYC for payments and payment compliance LatAm?
• Observability: Are latency and acceptance rates available for monitoring?

Use case: PSP expansion MX↔BR

• Collects in Mexico via SPEI* API (Mexico).
• Converts funds with embedded FX payments.
• Pays merchants in Brazil via PIX API (Brazil).
• Reconciles through real-time reconciliation with signed webhooks.
• Avoids prefunding and manages liquidity with multi-currency settlement.

This model simplifies payment orchestration LatAm and strengthens margin control.

For money transmitter solutions and PSP payments platforms, adopting a unified payments endpoint is more than a tech decision—it’s a growth strategy. By consolidating access to multiple rails through a Latin America payments API, companies unlock faster launches, safer operations, and scalable payment orchestration LatAm.

Find more detail on the API-first approach by downloading the full ebook: "Scale faster in LATAM: One API for all your pay-ins, pay-outs, and FX".

*NVIO México enables direct access to SPEI and delivers payment services fully compliant with Mexican regulation. NVIO Pagos México, S.A.P.I. de C.V., IFPE (“NVIO México”) is authorised and regulated by the Mexican National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV). Learn more at nvio.mx/terms.