Open Finance platform Belvo has launched a new solution that aims to improve the user experience offered by merchants and fintechs using Pagos Seguros en Linea. Founded in 2019, Belvo allows fintechs and financial institutions to access and interpret data as well as initiate payments from their end-users' accounts.

According to the official press release, Belvo’s platform provides connections with over 60 financial institutions in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia and works with more than 150 clients. Pagos Seguros en Línea (PSE) is a bank-to-bank electronic payments system that has been accepted by more than 20,000 merchants in Colombia. In order to increase the adoption of this digital payment method further, Belvo is launching a new Open Finance-based solution that reduces the time required to complete a payment thus improving user experience.

While the conventional process required 10 steps to complete, the new system brings the number of user interactions down to 4. Users can benefit from this new process by choosing the bank from which they wish to make a payment and do it in a few simple steps while knowing that the payment will be confirmed directly through their bank. Financial service providers and merchants benefit from improved conversion rates when compared to other methods of accepting online payments such as credit cards.

Moreover, users can also register the details of their banks once and use the data for future recurring transactions. Other Belvo developments In September 2022, the Central Bank of Brazil (Bacen) has authorised Belvo to operate as a Payment Transaction Initiator (ITP) in Brazil. With this license, Belvo can provide its customers with the ability to transfer funds via Pix between the accounts of different institutions.

The use cases Belvo intends to develop include different payment solutions with high potential in the Brazilian market, solutions that could benefit lenders, ecommerce checkouts, personal finance managers, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software providers. For instance, by connecting with Belvo, lenders could centralise and automate the process of collecting parcels, fees, and emitting payments, in a more practical process. In August 2022, Citi Ventures, the venture capital arm of investment bank Citi, has invested an undisclosed sum in Belvo in order to fund the co-development of an ‘Open Finance ecosystem’ in Mexico between banks and fintechs.

Belvo representatives described the experience of collaborating with Citi as ‘ecstatic’ and highlighted the trend of increasing Open Finance collaboration between fintechs and traditional financial players in Latin America. .