Itaú starts operating as a payment initiator in Brazil

The bank sees this tool, which is part of the Open Banking framework, as a way to help manage the financial lives of customers, including outside the conglomerate. Initiators are institutions authorised by the central bank to carry out the steps of payment on behalf of the customer. With Pix, for example, an online purchase can be authorised by logging in to the financial institution, without the need to open the bank application, enter the Pix area, paste the store code, and authorise the payment. Pix is the first payment method to be included in the launcher, but others will be there in the future as well.

Itaú will offer the functionality to individuals and companies. In the first group, it expects customers to manage their entire financial life without leaving the bank's platform. According to the bank’s staff, the initiator gains value for the individual customer along with the aggregation of balances from several institutions in a single place, made possible by the sharing of data in Open Banking. The bank envisions a scenario in which the customer can authorise them to pay a bill or service with the balance he has in another bank, for example.

At first, the launcher will be available to a reduced base of customers and employees, which should be expanded over the next few months of 2022. Itaú's initial focus is to use the tool to build customer loyalty.