Tom Greenwood, CEO at Volt

“The launch of Open Banking Excellence’s presence in Brazil on 1^st September is just the latest indication of the country’s potential to emerge as a leader in the Open Banking movement. Banco Central do Brazil (BCB) has gone one step further than its European counterparts, in devising an Open Banking framework that not only envisages but acts as the roadmap to Open Finance.”

“The four-phased approach will transform data sharing between banks (phase one), before addressing consumer privacy rights (phase two), the ability to initiate transactions (phase three), and finally the application of this to other verticals within financial services, such as credit, insurance and investments (phase four).”

“This will enable unseen levels of interoperability and innovation. We expect to see a multitude of additional services around authentication and automation. Payments will incorporate different scores of Buy Now Pay Later options and treasury management will be done in ways that leads to new investments strategies, and so on. The possibilities are vast and it’s a model that we expect other regulators around the world to follow.”

“The BCB’s considered approach to building this framework will result in an Open Banking infrastructure that is more advanced than Europe. The Open Banking landscape is beginning to level up across the globe, which makes it an exciting time for us to be at the centre of the open payments revolution.”

Andre Faria, Founding Director, LATAM at Volt

“Of course, the actual deployment of such an ambitious new model is not easy. A comparison to Europe’s own Open Banking journey tells us that delays are often inevitable. Certainly, the BCB’s second and third phases have both experienced delays so far, with the latter recently moved from 30 August to 29 October 2021. Discussions around cost allocation to subsidise the tech infrastructure needed are still to be had, and the immediate impact of the second (and arguably most important) wave has not yet been felt in the weeks following its official launch in August.”

“This has made for a truly gradual process rather than the clean shift that official launch dates can lead us to believe. But the BCB has been moving incredibly fast and the industry landscape is much more primed for open banking than that of Europe. A concentration within the five big traditional banks supported by a group of well-funded digital players such as Nubank is creating a diverse but condensed environment in Brazil, in comparison to Europe’s complex network of spaghetti infrastructure supporting, say, six thousand banks.”

“Perhaps most importantly, consumer demand for more accessible and flexible financial products in Brazil cannot be overstated. That’s why I’m betting we will see Brazil move twice as fast as its precursors and quickly take the global lead in the race towards Open Finance.”