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Customers' Unmet Needs and Pains

Financial System Infrastructure in Brazil Current Pains Analysis

The Brazilian financial system is admired worldwide for its rapid digitalisation (Pix, Open Finance, DREX) and high penetration of modern technologies, yet customers still experience a set of structural and day-to-day pains that reduce satisfaction, increase costs and limit the full realisation of inclusive growth. A synthesis of the Customer Challenges & Pains Analysis, Social Listening, Customer Identification and Current Demand Behaviour reports reveals six overarching pain domains:

  1. High cost of financial services
    • Merchant Discount Rates (MDR) above global averages; high custody, brokerage and registration fees; costly credit, especially for SMEs.
    • “Custo Brasil” (tax + operational burden) is routinely quoted by businesses on social media as a competitiveness killer.

  2. Security threats & fraud proliferation
    • Pix-related social-engineering scams and account takeovers rising >40 % YoY (reported by FEBRABAN and mainstream media).
    • Ransomware attacks against core banking vendors expose systemic vulnerabilities; dispute resolution remains slow and complex.

  3. Limited access & financial inclusion gaps
    • SMEs (especially turnover ≤ BRL 300 M) and MEIs struggle to obtain affordable working-capital credit, multi-currency accounts or advanced cash-management tools.
    • Retail investors outside tier-one cities lack easy, low-ticket access to diversified assets, advisory and educational content.

  4. Operational inefficiencies & lack of speed
    • Fragmented registries, legacy core systems not yet ISO 20022-native; manual reconciliations still frequent in B2B payments.
    • Receivables registration and lien perfection often take days rather than minutes, delaying credit approval.

  5. Complexity & lack of transparency
    • Fee structures (e.g., split between MDR, acquirer fee, card-scheme fee, interchange) opaque to merchants; investment product costs hidden in bundled spreads.
    • Regulatory paperwork and fast-evolving rules overwhelm smaller players; dispute/chargeback journeys cumbersome.

  6. Interoperability issues & data siloing
    • Despite Open Finance progress, coverage gaps (e.g., insurance, investments phase 4) and inconsistent data quality undermine personalised offerings.
    • Corporates juggling several ERPs/API formats face extra integration costs and cannot achieve full straight-through processing.

Unmet Needs and Pains

Below we detail the specific unmet needs that arise from the pains above, grouping them by customer segment and mapping them to explicit opportunities for improvement.

1. Cost-Efficiency & Fair Pricing

• SMEs & MEIs
– Need acquirer/PSP solutions with MDR ≤ 1 % for debit/instant payments and transparent pricing dashboards.
– Require low-cost multicurrency accounts to reduce FX spreads on imports/exports.

• Retail Investors
– Need zero-fee fractional investing and low-cost custody for ETFs, international assets and government bonds.

• Large Corporates
– Seek bulk payment & treasury modules that minimise float and optimise liquidity at inter-bank/instant-payment rails with predictable fees.

2. Advanced Security & Rapid Fraud Resolution

• All segments
– Need biometric-plus-behavioural authentication as default in Pix; mandatory refund guarantees or insured limits for scams.
– Desire < 1-hour dispute resolution for unauthorised transactions via automated, regulator-backed arbitration.

3. Tailored Credit & Cash-Flow Solutions

• SMEs & MEIs
– Need data-driven, same-day working-capital lines based on real-time receivables registry; credit scoring that rewards Pix sales history.
– Desire embedded BNPL for B2B purchases with transparent instalment cost.

• Consumers
– Require micro-credit and salary-on-demand with APR caps and instant disbursement into Pix wallet.

4. Frictionless, Real-Time Operations

• Large Corporates & Fintechs
– Need ISO 20022-native APIs across all clearing, settlement, custody and registries to enable straight-through reconciliation.
– Expect full 24 / 7 availability of RTGS-equivalent high-value rails (currently available only weekdays).

• SMEs
– Seek plug-and-play ERP/payment connectors eliminating manual uploads and reducing back-office headcount.

5. Radical Simplicity & Fee Transparency

• Merchants & Consumers
– Need consumer-facing comparison tools listing total cost of credit cards vs Pix parcelado vs boleto, in real time.
– Desire plain-language, one-screen disclosure of all investment and banking fees, mandated by regulator.

• Investors
– Want consolidated, multi-broker performance dashboard pulling data via Open Finance to visualise net returns after all costs.

6. Unified Data & Interoperability

• All segments
– Need single-consent, open-standard architecture that covers deposits, credit, brokerage, insurance and pensions in one dashboard.
– Corporates require LEI-based unique identifiers across registries to automate collateral management and cross-border trade finance.

7. Financial Literacy & Decision Support (Cross-cutting)

• Retail Investors & MEIs
– Need personalised education journeys (micro-videos, simulations) integrated into banking apps, triggered by data insights.
– Desire robo-advisory that accounts for behavioural biases and local tax implications.

Key Findings

# Unmet Need / Pain Primary Segment(s) Root Cause(s) Opportunity for Providers
1 Lower, transparent transaction & custody costs SMEs, Consumers Market concentration, “Custo Brasil”, opaque fee chains Launch low-fee Pix-first acquiring and custody-lite models
2 Stronger protection against Pix fraud & faster refunds All Social-engineering, slow dispute workflows AI-driven fraud scoring, instant provisional credit
3 Quick, affordable working-capital credit SMEs, MEIs Risk-averse banks, slow registry integration Embedded lending using real-time receivables & Pix data
4 Real-time, interoperable back-office processes Corporates, Fintechs Legacy cores, proprietary APIs ISO 20022 open APIs, cloud-native middleware
5 Simple, single-view fee & performance dashboards Merchants, Investors Fragmented data, complex disclosures Open-Finance aggregators, UX-first analytics
6 Comprehensive data-sharing across all financial products All Phase-gaps in Open Finance, differing data standards Unified consent layer, interoperability alliances
7 Accessible financial education and robo-advice Retail Investors, MEIs Low literacy, product complexity In-app micro-learning & contextual nudges

References

– ANBIMA. “Brasil tem R$ 9 trilhões em ativos custodiados.” https://www.anbima.com.br/pt_br/noticias/brasil-tem-r-9-trilhoes-em-ativos-custodiados.html
– Banco Central do Brasil. “Sistema de Pagamentos Brasileiro (SPB).” https://www.bcb.gov.br/estabilidadefinanceira/sistemadepagamentosbrasileiro
– FEBRABAN. “Pix é o meio de pagamento mais usado no Brasil em 2023.” https://quantoplan.febraban.org.br/noticias/pix-e-o-meio-de-pagamento-mais-usado-no-brasil-em-2023-ted-lidera-em-valores-transacionados
– Finsiders Brasil. “Quantidade de pagamentos digitais cresce 31 % no primeiro semestre.” https://www.finsiders.com.br/noticias/pagamentos/quantidade-de-pagamentos-digitais-cresce-31-no-primeiro-semestre-do-ano/
– Instituto Propague. “Pix eleva movimentação via iniciação de pagamento a nível recorde.” https://institutopropague.org/noticias/pix-eleva-movimentacao-via-iniciacao-de-pagamento-a-nivel-recorde/
– Money Times. “B3 (B3SA3): Volume financeiro médio diário cresce 4,1 % em abril.” https://www.moneytimes.com.br/b3-b3sa3-volume-financeiro-medio-diario-cresce-41-em-abril-para-r-256-bilhoes/
– Bain & Company. “Banking midsized businesses in Brazil, a comparative analysis.” https://www.bain.com/contentassets/82a21a70c6bc4c5d840b82b295d48175/report_banking_midsized_businesses_brazil.pdf
– Altios. “The Fintech Ecosystem in Brazil.” https://www.altios.com/fr/insights/fintech-ecosystem-brazil
– Dock. “Pagamentos instantâneos: principais sistemas na LatAm e no mundo.” https://www.dock.tech/blog/pagamentos-instantaneos-principais-sistemas/
– JOTA. “Os 9 anos do marco legal e regulatório de registradoras e depositários centrais.” https://www.jota.info/opiniao-e-analise/artigos/os-9-anos-do-marco-legal-e-regulatorio-de-registradoras-e-depositarios-centrais-08062022