Banking serves as the foundational back-end infrastructure responsible for processing daily banking transactions and maintaining up-to-date records of bank accounts and financial activities. It includes essential functionalities related to deposits and payments methods, while interfacing with general ledger systems and reporting tools.

Banking provides a unified banking experience for customers regardless of their geographic locations. This architecture aims to empower customers with enhanced independence, allowing them to manage their accounts and execute transactions from any location in the world. Read this guide to learn about Pismo’s banking products and gain insights into their features.

Pismo's banking product consist of the following:

• Banking models
  • On-demand banking
  • Alias bank
  • Banking as a Service (BaaS)
• Banking providers
• Banking services
• Payment methods
• Transaction banking

Banking models

On-demand banking

On-demand banking represents a modern business model where banks or financial institutions leverage Pismo's banking technology to offer direct banking services to their customers. In this approach, financial entities streamline their operations, eliminating the reliance on third-party payment service providers for processing various payment types such as instant payments or bill payments. This grants financial institutions greater autonomy in managing and customizing their product offerings.
Typically, banks or financial institutions hold the operating license necessary to furnish on-demand banking services, thereby retaining full control over their service portfolio.

Alias bank

Alias bank is the business model for fintech companies authorized by the central bank to deliver banking services. While possessing a general operating license, they must collaborate with providers to enable payment processing. Alias banks work in conjunction with both Pismo and partnering entities.

For payment methods such as indirect instant payments and indirect wire transfers, clients are required to have their own operating license. Furthermore, lacking direct connectivity with the central bank, they must engage with a connectivity provider to deliver services. Examples of alias banks include:

• Indirect wire transfers
• Indirect instant payments
• Bill payments

Banking as a Service (BaaS)

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It's important to note that Pismo is a cloud-based technology platform and does not hold a charter or approval from the Central Bank of Brazil to directly provide banking or payment services. This responsibility belongs to our BaaS (Banking as a Service) partner providers, including BTG, Celcoin, Itaú, and JD Consultores. Pismo only provides the technology that enables our clients, in collaboration with our BaaS partners, to offer payment services.

Banking as a Service (BaaS) is a business model where banks or other financial institutions extend their financial operations and infrastructure to serve non-financial client organizations (such as fintechs without a license, retailers, and utility companies). BaaS enables clients to embed financial products into their services without having to operate their own financial institutions and go through regulatory compliance.

Generally, these companies offer financial services without holding a central bank license. Instead, they use the license of their Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) provider who, in turn, assumes all regulatory responsibilities. Pismo streamlines the integration process with these providers, acting on behalf of the client.

Pismo's BaaS model together with BaaS providers include:

• Digital accounts
• Wire transfers
• Instant payments
• Bill payments

For more information, see Banking as a Service

Banking providers

Pismo provides a comprehensive financial service structure through partnerships with central bank-licensed institutions (providers), enabling them to offer services for handling and moving funds. Additionally, for those with a central bank license seeking to expand their financial platform, Pismo facilitates this by connecting them with various providers.

Pismo collaborates with many banking providers, including the following:

For BaaS:

• Celcoin

For Alias bank and On-demand banking:

• IAAS (Itaú as a Service)
• BTG Pactual
• JD Consultores

Banking services

Bank account types

Pismo's platform provides versatile solutions for clients to establish various types of accounts across all business models, including On-demand, Alias bank, and Banking as a Service. Pismo’s microservices enable clients to configure different account types, catering to distinct use cases in a range of countries and regions. This adaptability ensures compliance with client requirements and regional regulations. Account options encompass current accounts, savings accounts, overdraft accounts, virtual accounts, and multi-currency accounts.

Bank account schemes

You can register global bank accounts with different identifying formats (schemes) for use on the Pismo platform with the Bank accounts API. Among the options for registering bank accounts are schemes such as IBAN, BBAN, and schemes specific to a country or region. IBAN or International Bank Account Number (the most comprehensive account type) is a standard international numbering system used to identify an overseas bank account. The number starts with a two-digit country code, followed by two numbers and several more alphanumeric characters. IBAN does not replace a bank's own account numbering. Its only purpose is to provide additional information that helps identify overseas payments.

Interest-bearing accounts

Interest-bearing accounts are a type of bank account that allows clients to earn interest on deposited funds. The purpose of these bank accounts varies according to how clients use them; they can be used for short-term savings, emergency funds, specific goals such as travel or major purchases, or as part of a diversified investment strategy. Interest-bearing accounts provide a safer alternative to riskier investment options and offer a convenient solution for saving money while accruing interest. For more information, see Interest-bearing accounts.

Time deposit

A time deposit account is a type of interest-bearing bank or credit union account that has a preset date of maturity. It requires bank customers to leave their money in the account for an agreed-upon length of time. If customers want to access the funds in a time deposit account, they must wait until the end of the term or risk having a penalty for early withdrawals. A certificate of deposit (CD) is the best-known example of time deposit accounts.

Time deposits generally pay a slightly higher interest rate than a regular savings account. Usually the longer the time to maturity, the higher the interest payments.

Judicial block/unblock

Pismo partners with a third-party provider to automate the judicial block/unblock functionality. A judicial block is a temporary or permanent hold placed on bank accounts due to regulations, bank policies, or legal reasons. A blocked account does not allow for unlimited or indiscriminate access to funds but instead has certain restrictions or limitations on when, how much, and by whom capital can be withdrawn.

Contrary to the manual Hold funds feature, the automated judicial block service streamlines fund holding, eliminating the need for clients to manually call the Block amount API, thereby offering a more effortless approach to managing funds.

Payment methods

Instant payments

Instant payments refer to digital payments that enable fund transfers in real time, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, where the recipient can use the available funds immediately. Pismo supports two instant payment systems: Pix (Brazil) and Faster Payments (United Kingdom), and is developing integrations for other geographic locations.

For more information, see:

• Pix instant payments (Brazil)
• Pix-out transfer
• Faster payments (UK)
• Send Faster payments

Wire transfers

Wire transfers, electronic fund transfers between banks, are a service used by businesses and individuals alike. Pismo offers TED wire transfers within Brazil and is actively developing additional integration types. TED functions based on a client's setup with a provider authorized to perform TED transfers, thereby enabling clients to execute these transfers. Bank customers who initiate a TED transfer must use Cash-out transfer.

See Register for TED transfers for more details.

National payment systems

Brazil

In Brazil, a national payment system such as SPB is a payment system that consists of entities, systems, and procedures governing the clearing and settlement of funds transfers, foreign currency operations, financial assets, and securities transactions. Its members are systems collectively known as Financial Market Infrastructure (FMI), which oversee a range of services, including:

• Clearing and settlement of electronic debit and credit orders
• Fund transfers
• Settlement of securities transactions

Under regulatory mandates, every financial institution (FI) and payment institution (PI) must establish an account with the central bank. These entities are legally obligated to monitor account transactions and report activities to the national financial system. As direct communication with the central bank is restricted, institutions must collaborate with Pismo to establish and use this service effectively.

STR protocol

To monitor account transactions, the Central Bank of Brazil (Bacen) uses the Sistema de Transferência de Reservas (STR), a real-time gross settlement system. Approved institutions use STR to format transactions into messages. Since financial and payment institutions cannot directly communicate with Bacen to generate STRs, they rely on Information Technology System Providers (PSTIs) to communicate with Bacen for generating STRs. In the Brazilian financial and payment system (SPB), transactions are irrevocable and processed individually. Pismo partners with JD Consultores to facilitate STR messaging, managing both cash-out transactions from Pismo accounts, and cash-in transactions from external accounts to Pismo accounts.

STR is crucial for the stability and efficiency of the Brazilian financial system, providing a reliable infrastructure for the settlement of high-value transactions between financial institutions.

To use the SPB product, the client must first contract with a PSTI such as JD Consultores, which generates the necessary credentials and shares the endpoint URL with Pismo for message communication. Connectivity with Pismo must be established through either the public internet or privately through AWS Privatelink, and only institutions approved by Bacen are permitted to connect to the PSTI. Once connectivity is in place and the client's credentials are configured in Pismo, the client must select which messages to enable with Pismo. Pismo’s cash-out endpoint is available for transactional operations, and cash-in occurs automatically through communication between Pismo and the provider, ensuring that the client does not have to take any further action.

Here is a list of the STR messaging codes. Each code corresponds to a specific transaction type or status update.

Bank slips

Bank slips are used to pay bills, such as utilities, taxes, rent, and so on. In some countries, it is a common cash payment method. A bank slip is a bank voucher (printed or virtual) that can be paid to various financial institutions.

Pismo offers an Issue Bank Slip API, enabling you to generate and issue bank slips to your clients for payment and bank slip payments. Essentially, you use this API to create a bank slip and send it to Pismo's partner for processing. Consult the Issue bank slips section in Bank slips for more details.

Here are the endpoints related to Pismo's bank slip feature:

• Bank slips
• Pay bank slip
• Issue bank slip

Transaction banking

Transaction banking emphasizes precise management of both global and local operations. The goal is to create a clear view of the cashflow history and forecast for each account. Pismo offers a transaction banking solution founded on a distributed microservices architecture. This flexible design empowers you to selectively use the components that are relevant to your business application. As a result, you can develop a variety of products, from a simple ledger of virtual accounts to a sophisticated hierarchy of corporate accounts. These accounts can be organized under customized hierarchies and divisional structures. Moreover, Pismo's solution provides scheduled payment, file-based payment, earmarking, value dating, and other financial capabilities.

For more information, see Transaction banking