The year 2025 starts challenging. But despite the rise in the dollar and interest rates, AI, Pix and Open Finance advance
The year 2025 starts challenging for fintechs. To grow, they will have to continue focusing more on financial balance than on the contribution of resources from investors. After a brief hint of recovery, everything indicates that they will now have to deal again with the capital flight caused by the dollar at around R$ 6. The Selic rate at 12.25% per year – with a forecast that it will reach 15%, at least – will make life difficult for those who live on credit, which will become more expensive, riskier and less attractive to borrowers.
The positive side is that with the advancement of digital transformation, fintechs should play an increasingly relevant role in the ecosystem, strengthening their collaboration with conventional banks and regulators. “Such partnerships will take advantage of the innovative power of fintechs and the broad network and resources of large banks, resulting in improved financial services that meet the growing needs of consumers,” says Enio Almeida, executive director of Wise Brazil.
Artificial intelligence
There are positive expectations, too. The main one concerns the advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) applied to improve the products offered.
In 2025, the regulatory framework for AI should come out, which seeks to ensure legal and ethical certainty in the use of technology and in the defense of fundamental rights. “With the arrival of the legal framework for Artificial Intelligence, financial market authorities will begin to present to the market the excess and specific regulation for the sector. We will keep an eye on this,” says Diego Perez, president of ABFintechs.
This should bring more security to the sector in which half already use AI in some form in credit processes, as pointed out by a study conducted by Cinnecta, a company of the Matera group. The use cases largely focus on predictive analytics and fraud detection, for now. But it is expected that the big highlight will be with the hyper-personalization of the customer experience.
“Artificial Intelligence is not just a tool, but a true paradigm shifter in the financial sector,” says Julian Colombo, CEO and founder of N5, a multinational software company for the financial industry. “In 2025, we expect a more integrated, inclusive market aligned with the growing expectations of an increasingly demanding consumer. As a central part of this transformation, I can say that AI is already profoundly impacting the financial sector. However, the future of this market will not be defined only by the capacity for innovation, but by the responsibility with which these innovations are developed and implemented”.
Open Finance
Open Finance gained prominence last year mainly due to the launch of the pilot of the Journey Without Redirection (JSR), which should be further explored throughout this year. There are two main proposals that will gain strength, explains Ana Continentino, a member of Open Finance Brasil and also a Regulated Business Strategy Supervisor at Mercado Pago. “The first is within e-commerce, using Pix, and the second is in the approximation, using an authorized account to make payments through digital wallets.”
“Open Finance is revolutionary, but it faces important challenges. Trust and financial education still represent barriers, especially for less banked populations. However, the numbers are promising: 43.85 million active consents in 2024 show consistent progress. The expectation is that the system will reach an even larger portion of the population by 2025, but this will depend on effective campaigns and business models that incorporate the opportunities of data sharing and services to deliver practical benefits to consumers”, believes Murilo Rabusky, Business Director at Lina Open X.
Another awaited point is the advancement of credit and investment portability, the Open Capital Markets, which comes into force in July.
Pix
Pix should continue to consolidate its role among payment methods, especially from new products derived from the BC regulations scheduled for 2025.
“We had the launch of Pix, we use it a lot, now we develop new products and we are seeing the launch with a lot of innovation. Pix has been maturing in the financial system and these next deliveries will add a lot of value and bring important changes from 2025 onwards,” says Patrícia Leal, director of Payment innovations at Mercado Pago.
