Payment Initiation puts user experience first when making payments

According to a Future Consumer Index (FCI) survey, 44% of Brazilians will do all their shopping online in 2022. In that context, Payment Initiation (ITP) emerges as another service to cement e-commerce's dominance and cut cart abandonment. That's because the new payment modality improves the user experience and simplifies the payment flow.

From the start, Banco Central designed the feature to streamline the consumer journey. ITP lets consumers initiate Pix payments directly from e-commerce sites and apps.

For comparison: the Pix system, famous for transforming payment methods in Brazil, typically takes at least 7 steps to complete an e-commerce payment. With ITP, the consumer completes the payment in just 4 steps — with no QR Code or "copy and paste" required.

This usability and simplification is shaped by the UX working group at Open Finance Brasil, which brings together the country's leading experts on the topic and is coordinated by Luana Soratto. At Fintopics, an ABFintechs event (the Brazilian Fintech Association) on The Future of the Payments Market — which featured experts discussing how ITP works, use cases, regulation, technological challenges, compliance and user experience — Luana explained that the Payment Initiation service follows a mandatory User Experience Guide.

What should I think about for UX when becoming a Payment Initiator?

According to her, the Guide exists to set the minimum requirements and essential information that institutions offering the service must follow. The Guide ensures users have the security and transparency needed to complete transactions. But every institution is responsible for going further and improving its own customer journey.

For institutions just starting out on the path to becoming an ITP, the expert urges companies "not to underestimate the front-end." All the topics involved in building an ITP matter, and user experience should be one of the top priorities. It's essential to identify who your user is and the purpose of the payment to ensure a strong consumer experience.

Within a year, Luana expects ITP to have made real progress, with other payment arrangements — beyond Pix — being added to the Payment Initiator.

A solution for becoming a Payment Initiator (ITP)

To bring your institution to market faster and participate in Open Finance Brasil as a Payment Initiator, you can count on Iniciador — a software platform focused on Open Payments so your team can stay focused on its core business.

We're specialists in Payment Initiation (ITP). Our platform has technology certified by the OpenID Foundation and is compliant with Banco Central do Brasil regulations, the Pix arrangement and the Open Finance Directory rules.