Brazil’s open finance ecosystem is often held up as one of the most advanced in the world. More than 100 million customers are connected, active consents have passed 154 million, and financial institutions exchange billions of messages every week.
But scale does not automatically translate into adoption. Cumbuca, a Brazilian fintech that acts as a regulatory proxy for the country’s Open Finance and Pix ecosystem, reveals that only around 3% of Brazilian companies are currently connected to open finance, compared with around 20% in the UK.
For international payments companies and developers, the challenge is not just understanding the opportunity, but working through licensing, certification, consent journeys, bank integrations and regulatory documentation that was not always designed with builders in mind.
That gap sits behind the launch of the Open Finance Playground, an open-source implementation guide created by Cumbuca and Juspay, a global payments technology company. The project is designed to turn complex regulatory specifications into practical workflows covering consent, payment initiation and data access, with a live simulator showing API calls in real time.
Fintechly spoke to Daniel Ruhman, CEO of Cumbuca, about why open finance remains difficult to build on, where commercial demand is emerging, and what other markets should watch as Brazil’s ecosystem develops.
What tends to make Brazil a difficult market for international payments companies to enter?
Brazil is a challenging market for international payments companies to enter due to high costs and regulatory complexities that require significantly more time and effort for developers to navigate. Drawn-out licensing processes and limited alternative options means that new entrants must either acquire a license themselves which can take months, if not years, or work with Open Finance-as-a-Service (OFaaS) providers.
Whilst Open Finance-as-a-Service (OFaaS) providers enable companies to use off-the-shelf services to launch, they also force companies to sacrifice control of their business operations. Beyond the time and cost, becoming regulated in Brazil could involve significant personal liability, with statutory directors of companies regulated by the Central Bank being personally liable on their tax ID for what occurs within their company. This level of individual accountability is largely unfamiliar to international players, and as a result, they find it easier to avoid entering Brazil’s ecosystem.
What does the Open Finance Playground actually change for someone trying to build a product?
The Open Finance Playground streamlines the process of bringing products to market by reducing technical complexity, enhancing compliance confidence, and ensuring operational reliability. For someone looking to create a product, the Playground simplifies hundreds of pages of intricate regulatory details into practical, step-by-step implementation workflows that cover consent flows, payment initiation, and data access. This approach offers a quicker and more cost-effective solution for companies starting to build in Brazil.
The Playground was developed in partnership with JusPay, which utilised Cumbuca’s technical expertise and understanding of Brazil’s market nuances. That experience informed the development of the Playground, and as a result of the partnership, Juspay was able to launch in the market 12 to 18 months faster than previously estimated timelines.
Why do you think company adoption is still relatively low, despite the scale of Brazil’s open finance ecosystem?
Company adoption remains low due to the cumbersome process of securing the appropriate licenses which are essential to operate in the country. The ITP authorisation process from Banco Central alone, followed by Directory onboarding, OpenID certification, and individual bank integrations, significantly impacts the ability for companies to develop their brand presence, as well as limiting their business value and profitability when newly establishing their operations in Brazil.
The process for giving consent for companies is not the same across different institutions. This lack of standardisation makes it hard to create and offer products through Open Finance. Each institution has its own way of managing consent, and some even require steps that happen outside of the digital space. This inconsistency creates challenges for developers.
On the consumer side, rules for consent are in place for tax ID users, but companies do not face the same requirements. As a result, fewer companies adopt these systems, mostly due to gaps in regulations, not just technical issues. However, the overall complexity of Brazil’s open finance system also slows down the entry of new companies into this market.
In the UK, there are many tools, guides, and resources for developers, which makes it easier for them to work with frameworks. In contrast, Brazil’s official documentation is focused on meeting regulations rather than helping developers start. This has made it harder for companies in Brazil to adopt the framework. Currently, only 3% of Brazilian companies are connected to open finance, while 20% of companies in the UK are involved.
Where are you seeing genuine commercial demand for open finance in Brazil, and where is the market still more hype than reality?
Commercial demand is concentrated in areas where the value proposition is immediate and measurable. Credit underwriting is probably the clearest example. With personal credit portability moving to full production in early 2026, financial institutions are actively using data sharing to attract competitors’ customers with better rates and to assess creditworthiness for people with limited credit histories.
Payment initiation is another area of real traction. Payment Initiation API calls grew 194% in 2024, reaching 159 million, up from 54 million the year before. This is largely driven by improvements in e-commerce conversion rates. Financial management tools that aggregate data across banks, investments and insurance are also attracting investment.
Where the market is still more aspiration than reality is on the business side. Banks are under pressure to move beyond compliance and build profitable products, yet many are still struggling to connect modern APIs to legacy core banking infrastructure. The consent journey, particularly for corporate clients requiring multiple signatures, remains a genuine barrier. According to EY, 30% of surveyed financial institution executives cite the need for multiple internal authorisations as the main factor preventing wider adoption across companies. The entry costs are also rising with new capital requirements from the Central Bank in 2026 are forcing consolidation among fintechs and leaving less room for experimentation.
How much of the challenge is technical, and how much is about giving businesses a clear reason to invest in open finance?
Both technical and commercial challenges are important. The technical hurdles are significant. Official documents outline what the system needs, but they don’t explain how to build on it. Developers often spend weeks just preparing before they can make their first API call. This delay can discourage many potential builders, especially smaller companies that lack dedicated engineering teams.
Even when companies have the technical skills, it isn’t always clear why they should invest in open finance. According to the EY report, 20% of institutions say they do not focus on companies involved in Open Finance initiatives. Additionally, 17% do not have a clear value proposition for this area. Without a clear reason to invest, companies hold back. The two problems feed into each other as high technical complexity makes it tough to test ideas cheaply, and without cheap tests, it’s harder to find out where the real commercial value lies.
What should other markets be watching closely as Brazil’s open finance system develops?
Brazil’s infrastructure is already being stress-tested in ways most markets have not yet experienced, and the decisions being made now about consent design, API standardisation, and the integration of payments with broader financial data will set precedents worth studying.
Adoption of open finance is growing, and the relationship between traditional banks and Open Finance is changing. Banks have been careful because open finance changes how data and payments work in the financial system. This caution has slowed down some progress, like agreeing on company consent processes. However, we are starting to see a change. Established banks are beginning to look for ways to get involved in open finance instead of avoiding it. How this change happens will be important to watch as Brazil’s open finance ecosystem develops.
Innovation in the wider ecosystem is also still just beginning. Even with over 100 million customers connected, not many developers are participating, which means the infrastructure is not being used fully. The Open Finance Playground aims to fix this by making it easier for developers, ecosystem participants, and financial institutions to join in. As more developers get involved, the network will become more valuable, and new uses for it will emerge. This will be useful for any market looking to follow a similar path.
