APIs, integrated payments, and the challenge of scaling fintechs

The Brazilian fintech market is currently experiencing a period of consolidation and maturation. According to research by the innovation platform Distrito, the country is home to over 1,500 active companies and continues to lead the ecosystem in Latin America. At the same time, there is growing pressure on these companies to expand their customer bases, launch new products, and process increasingly higher volumes of transactions without increasing costs at the same rate.

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In this scenario, the ability to scale no longer depends solely on product quality or commercial strategy. It is increasingly tied to the technological infrastructure that supports operations. This is where APIs come in—mechanisms that enable communication between different systems and act as digital bridges that connect platforms and automate the exchange of information. Thanks to them, fintechs, marketplaces, and tech companies can integrate payments, accounts, receivables, foreign exchange operations, and other financial services directly into their structures without needing to build the entire infrastructure from scratch.

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This integration capability is becoming one of the sector's primary competitive factors. According to data cited by Sebrae, companies that automate financial processes can reduce the time spent on these activities by up to 70%. This figure helps explain why APIs have evolved from being purely technological tools into instruments for growth.

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The logic is simple: the less time teams spend on operational tasks, the greater their capacity to direct efforts toward innovation, commercial expansion, and new product development. This shift is transforming how financial services are offered. Instead of isolated products, payments, accounts, and foreign exchange operations now function as integrated components within a single digital journey.

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“The major trend is interoperability,” says João Costa Pereira, Head of Trade Finance at Ouribank. “When this happens, financial borders cease to be an obstacle and become a bridge to new business,” he adds.

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Growth requires integration

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For a long time, a company's growth was accompanied by the expansion of its operational teams. More customers meant more people to process payments, perform reconciliations, validate documents, and monitor operations. Today, technology is changing that equation. With APIs and integrations, a large portion of these activities can be automated. Information flows between systems instantaneously, reducing rework, eliminating manual processes, and increasing operational efficiency.

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For fintechs, this gain is particularly important. In a highly competitive market, launch speed, user experience, and adaptability are decisive factors. The simpler it is to incorporate new financial services into a platform, the faster the company can respond to market demands.

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It is no coincidence that integrated payments, the digitalization of foreign trade, multi-currency operations, and artificial intelligence were among the central themes of FELABAN 2025, one of the leading gatherings for the Latin American financial sector.

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According to Pereira, efficiency, security, and immediacy will be the pillars of the next phase of market transformation. “Clients don’t just want the best financial product on the market. They want the product that brings the most value to their business. That is what drives us.”

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The pursuit of simpler journeys also explains the rise of Banking as a Service (BaaS) models, which allow companies to offer financial services without needing to operate as traditional financial institutions. In this context, APIs act as the infrastructure that connects different solutions and enables the creation of new experiences for users and partners.

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How the Solutions Hub accelerates operations

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It was precisely to meet this growing demand for connected financial services that Ouribank developed its Solutions Hub, an API portal aimed at fintechs, foreign exchange correspondents, technology companies, and partners looking to embed financial features into their platforms.

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The structure allows access to payments, accounts, foreign exchange, and digital services through a single technological layer. The goal is to simplify the development of new products, reduce technical barriers, and accelerate the time it takes for partners to go live.

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The results already show the impact of this strategy. In just over a year, the Solutions Hub has reduced onboarding time by 60%, reached over 2 million monthly operations processed via APIs, and recorded an operational uptime of 99.5%. This allows for scaling partnerships and enabling international business with agility, control, and security, supported by a robust API management strategy.

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Beyond the speed of data connection, the portal offers structured technical documentation, a testing environment, and a modular API catalog that allows services to be implemented according to each business's needs. Another key differentiator is the breadth of available solutions. The Ouribank ecosystem connects payments, accounts, foreign exchange operations, and digital financial services within a single infrastructure, reducing the need for multiple providers and simplifying operational management.

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This capability becomes even more relevant in international operations. The bank already uses its Payment Hub and Banking as a Service offering to allow foreign institutions to use BRL accounts and connect to the Brazilian financial infrastructure. “We want our clients to sell in Latin America with the same ease as they do in Brazil,” says Pereira.

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Ultimately, the discussion about APIs is not just technological. It reflects a broader shift in how companies access and use financial services. In an environment marked by increasingly digital and connected operations, the ability to simplify processes and eliminate operational barriers is becoming as important a differentiator as the product itself.

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