Best bank: Banco Mercantil Santa Cruz
Banco Mercantil Santa Cruz is the largest private-sector bank in Bolivia and in 2025 it married this scale with strong profitability – ROE was 16.3% – reflecting sustained customer confidence in its service quality and breadth of offering.
A major retail highlight from the review period was the launch of Cuenta Express, a savings product designed to combine an attractive return with full liquidity. The account offers up to 4.6% annual interest on the total savings balance, while allowing unlimited withdrawals, making it a straightforward proposition for customers seeking a higher-yielding but accessible savings solution.
Its launch and promotion during Banco Mercantil’s anniversary and Expocruz activation gave the bank a highly visible retail savings offer at national scale, complementing the 25-year-old Super Makro Cuenta savings franchise. With Cuenta Express, customers can grow deposits without sacrificing flexibility, while the bank strengthens its retail funding base and deepens customer relationships.
The bank is also modernising its operating model through digitalisation. In July 2025, it introduced CYCO Digital Signature, enabling fully digital savings account opening, available 24/7. Customers complete secure identity validation using facial biometrics and automated ID capture, receive a legally valid digital signature certificate, sign the contract instantly, and receive account details and signed documentation through WhatsApp. On the back of these changes, onboarding time fell from several days to less than 10 minutes and monthly openings rose from around 2,000 in 2024 to more than 6,000 in July 2025.
For SME clients, Banco Mercantil supports supplier payments, payroll, automatic debits, and tax and pension payments, with online visibility through internet banking and dedicated relationship support. In 2025, the bank launched Mastercard Corporate with Smart Data, a solution for enterprise expense management and B2B payments. The product gives companies real-time visibility, automated reconciliation, advanced reporting and user administration, helping simplify travel and expense management and supplier payment workflows.
