CHILE: An Introduction

Chile 2025: Why “Stability” Feels Like a Regulatory Tightrope

Chile enters 2025 with macroeconomic indicators that, while positive on the surface, reveal underlying fragilities. March’s Imacec rose 3.8% year-on-year, yet the seasonally adjusted increase was a modest 0.8%, underscoring the temporary nature of the copper boost. Inflation has eased to 4.5%, but remains above the Central Bank’s 3% target, and the peso’s volatility—piercing CLP 1,040 per USD in January—has unsettled investors. In short: growth is present, but uneven; prices are sticky; the currency is unstable; and the regulatory landscape is expanding faster than businesses can adapt.

Banking, fintech and open finance

With Basel III capital and liquidity standards nearly fully implemented, Chile’s banking sector has reinforced its reputation for resilience. However, attention has shifted to the 2023 Fintech Law, which introduces Latin America’s first mandatory open banking regime. Phase 1 begins in July 2026, requiring banks to expose product-level data via standardised APIs, with customer-authorised datasets to follow over the next 18–36 months. While some banks see opportunities in data monetization, many face mounting pressure from agile fintech’s building services atop legacy infrastructure. The CMF is issuing staggered secondary regulations on cybersecurity, consumer protection and licensing, but the fragmented rollout has created uncertainty. Traditional banks are exploring digital-only subsidiaries and cloud migration, yet these moves carry operational and regulatory risks that remain only partially defined.

Mining, energy costs and the Lithium Strategy

Mining continues to contribute around 13–14% of GDP and nearly 60% of export revenues, but the operating environment is becoming increasingly complex. The 2022 Climate Change Framework Law, Chile’s commitments under the Escazú Agreement, and the new Biodiversity Service (Law 21.600, effective 2025) have extended environmental approval timelines and introduced more rigorous community consultation requirements. Large copper producers are now investing heavily in tailings audits, desalination projects and Scope 3 emissions tracking. Rising energy costs add further strain, with the government considering a grid-balancing surcharge for users exceeding 5 GWh per month—targeting energy-intensive miners. Meanwhile, the national Lithium Strategy is opening salt flat concessions to joint ventures with state participation. Investors must navigate evolving royalty schemes and indigenous land consultations, with the policy direction favoring in-country value-added processing and strict ESG compliance in exchange for preferential access.

Competition law: from cartels to digital platforms

Chile’s National Economic Prosecutor’s Office (FNE) and Competition Court remain among the region’s most active enforcers. Traditional cartel cases in fuel, retail and logistics continue to attract multimillion-dollar fines, with the Supreme Court endorsing aggressive penalties for repeat offenders. Simultaneously, the FNE is expanding its focus to digital markets. A landmark lawsuit filed in May 2025 against Google challenges mandatory billing practices in its app store. Sector-wide studies on e-commerce logistics and ride-hailing platforms are expected to result in soft-law guidance affecting vertical agreements and data-sharing practices. While merger thresholds remain unchanged, Phase II reviews are becoming more rigorous, particularly where ecosystem effects, data concentration or labor market overlaps are involved.

Compliance as strategic leverage

Chile’s 2023 Economic Crimes Law (Law 21.595) has significantly broadened corporate criminal liability, formalised environmental offences and imposed a statutory duty of supervision on boards. Compliance is no longer viewed merely as a safeguard—it is increasingly a strategic differentiator. Leading programs now include multi-layered data analytics, independent whistleblowing channels and scenario testing that integrates antitrust, anti-corruption and ESG metrics. The CMF’s climate disclosure rule (NCG 461) enters its final phase in 2025, and the GDPR-style Data Protection Law (Law 21.719) will take full effect in December 2026. Early adopters—particularly in banking and mining—are embedding these requirements into supplier codes of conduct and leveraging them to access green or KPI-linked financing at more favorable rates.

Operational challenges and mitigation strategies

Regulatory overload

The surge in secondary legislation is stretching legal teams thin. Some firms are deploying regulatory mapping tools and embedding compliance checkpoints into project management systems to stay ahead.

Permitting delays

Mining and infrastructure sponsors are mitigating timing risks by front-loading stakeholder engagement, using social impact bonds, and sequencing approvals to allow early-stage work under preliminary licenses.

Data localisation concerns

Financial institutions subject to open banking rules are adopting hybrid cloud architectures that retain critical data in local zones while enabling international analytics.

Antitrust risks in collaboration

Joint ventures in green hydrogen or lithium processing require robust information firewalls and clean-team protocols from the outset.

Resource nationalism narratives

Investors are hedging against policy shifts by structuring deals with early-stage state involvement (eg minority stakes for ENAMI or CORFO) and including adaptive fiscal stability clauses to enable renegotiation rather than abrupt termination.

Outlook for the year ahead

Chile’s regulatory trajectory in 2025 is steady but cumulative, with lawmakers focused on OECD alignment and enforcement rather than sweeping reform. Key milestones include:

• • Open Banking Phase 1 (July 2026): Banks must publish product-level data via APIs; customer-authorized datasets will follow in staggered phases.
  • NCG 461 Climate Disclosure: Final implementation wave in 2025 brings all listed issuers into scope.
  • Law 21.595 (Economic Crimes): Fully operative, with boards now legally responsible for overseeing prevention models.
  • Law 21.719 (Data Protection): GDPR-style obligations take full effect in December 2026.

The upcoming presidential and congressional elections in November 2025 may affect consultation timelines, but cross-party support for OECD convergence makes a reversal unlikely.

Strategic imperative

Treat compliance, data governance and ESG metrics not as bolt-on safeguards, but as tools for value creation. Firms that invest early in real-time risk analytics, cloud-ready infrastructure and proactive regulatory engagement will benefit from faster approvals and reduced supervisory burdens. Those that delay risk bottlenecks, extended environmental reviews and heightened scrutiny.