The Brazilian fintech sector has experienced major changes in recent times – from the implementation of Open Finance to the recent discussions about Brazilian Digital Currency. The country is currently living a period of maturation and development of its financial system. Historically, the Brazilian financial system has been concentrated, but given the Central Bank recent efforts, the situation has been slowly changing. In 2019, the five largest banking institutions in the country concentrated 83.7% of the banking market, compared to the drop to 81.8% in 2020, latest available data. Although the number remains high, there were three consecutive years of reduction in banking concentration.
The past years were considered milestones for introducing important regulatory and infrastructure changes in Brazil - with the regulatory sandbox (environments for testing innovative solutions), open banking and Pix (instant payment). Pix enables transactions in real-time between different institutions without the need for intermediaries, it is free to individuals and has been a major revolution in the financial sector in Brazil.
