Open Banking
Brazil
Designing a national experience framework for financial innovation
Building the user experience guide
Designing a scalable user experience model to help Brazilian financial institutions transform a complex regulatory initiative into a clear and trustworthy digital experience.
Open Banking introduced a new way for customers to securely share financial data between institutions. The challenge was translating a highly technical and regulated ecosystem into understandable experiences for millions of users.
Department
Banking
Team structure
Senior UX Designer (me)
Senior UX Designer
Senior UX Research
Project duration
10 months/2021
Executive Summary
Situation
Brazil was implementing Open Banking nationwide, connecting financial institutions through a new data-sharing ecosystem. The complexity of regulations and technical requirements created the challenge of building experiences that users could understand and trust.
Initiative
I collaborated with researchers, designers, financial institutions, and industry stakeholders to define the Open Banking Experience Guide. I contributed to research, journey mapping, workshops, content structure, and experience recommendations to create consistent user journeys across the ecosystem.
Impact
Created an experience framework to support Open Banking implementation across Brazilian institutions.
Translated complex financial concepts into clear user journeys and interaction patterns.
Supported the growth of Open Finance adoption in Brazil, reaching:
17M active consents
11M participating customers
12B API calls
800 participating institutions
Helped establish a more transparent and user-centered financial ecosystem.
Deep project phases
For compliance reasons, it is not permitted to share the studies carried out for this project, nor the workshops, however, I can share the end result, as, as it is available for public download on the internet, to see the complete material click here.
Data sharing
Initiation of
payments
Results
Data sharing
We understand that this first phase was crucial for the adoption and success of Open Banking, explaining each step of the process is essential, and the consent form becomes one of the most complex and important steps to be dealt with. Agreeing to share data is a step that requires a lot of trust from users to financial institutions. To do this, we carried out several interviews, to try to understand the user's view of the banking market and seek the best way to convey confidence in the service.
Some of the important points were:
Financial education
Open Banking is a major change the financial system is undergoing, so users need to be informed about what's coming;
Safety
Communications need to be clear and ensure that the user understands that sharing can be canceled at any time;
Clarity on benefits
It will be very important for financial institutions to communicate the benefits in a clear and accessible way to their current and future customers;
Good management of consents
In addition to the data generated by sharing, the fact that a user cancels their consent beforehand will also be a very important factor to understand;
It all comes down to experience
Get to know users and be able to provide them with a different experience. The combination of the best products and the best experience will be a key factor in accepting the consent form;
We presented the research material and interviews to the Experience Group, with the aim of raising awareness of the user's needs, and thus, together with them, we continued with the construction of the data sharing journey.
Data Sharing Experience Journey
IR
IT
Institution
Institution
Transmitter
Post-request
Post-request
5. Redirection
IR
IR
IT
IT
2. Redirection
IT - Institution
Transmitter
IR - Receiving
Institution
1. Consent
The Receiving Institution requests the customer consent to the data sharing.
3. Authentication
Customer authentication is carried out in accordance with the standards of the Transmitting Institution's digital channels.
4. Confirmation
Customer confirms the sharing
of the data, according to what was
requested at the Receiving Institution.
6. Effectiveness
The Receiving Institution informs the client that the data has been shared.
The customer is redirected back to the Receiving Institution to complete the sharing.
The customer is notified that it will be redirected to the Transmitting Institution in order to ensure comfort and visibility of the next steps.
Navigation design images- sharing request
Payment initiation journey
Pre-request
Post-request
5. Redirection
ITP
ID
ITP
ID
2. Redirection
ID - Institution
Account Holder
ITP - Payment Transaction
Initiating Institution
1. Initiation request
Payment Transaction
The Payment Initiating Institution requests the transition of information and consent from the customer.
3. Authentication
Customer authentication is carried out at the Account Holder, according to the standards of the digital channels already defined in each institution.
4. Confirmation
The Account Holding Institution displays payment information including form, amount, recipient, date, periodicity and deadline (if applicable).
6. Fulfillment of the Request
The Payment Initiating Institution displays confirmation of the payment request, including form, amount, recipient, date, periodicity and deadline (if applicable).
The customer is redirected back to the Payment Initiating Institution's environment.
The customer is redirected to the Account Holding Institution's environment.
Navigation design images- payment transaction initiation request
Results
In its first year of operation, Open Banking in Brazil reached 5 million active consents, a level that took the United Kingdom five years to achieve. Even considering its share of the population with adoption, the UK faced barriers such as low consumer awareness, privacy concerns, and resistance from traditional banks. In two years of implementation, these were the numbers achieved:
Open Finance has completed two years with approximately 15 million customers, equivalent to 8% of the 188 million Brazilians who have bank accounts in the country. Despite the successful adoption, the population's lack of financial literacy and the system's complex operational implementation still pose challenges to achieving even greater adoption.
17
million
of active consents
in the ecosystem
11
million
of participating customers
12
billion
of API calls
800
Institutions
participants
Although internationally recognized, Open Banking is still unknown to the majority of the Brazilian population. Experts point out that delivering value to the consumer will be fundamental to the popularization of the system. The Open Banking market should help improve existing financial products and create new developments in the area, in addition to simplifying processes and increasing efficiency in financial management. The data presented is from the year 2023.
Check out the complete manual at the link below.
Complete manual