Prometeo Open Banking, which claims to be the leading Latin American Open Banking platform, announced the launch of the first Account to Account (A2A) payments solution in Latin American markets.
As noted in an update shared with Crowdfund Insider, Prometeo‘s new payment service “provides a frictionless user experience, no intermediaries, and convenient costs for merchants and users.” The company claims that the service is “completely unique in the region and allows merchants to scale without the need for complex integrations and developments.”
The solution “allows Prometeo’s customers to embed bank account payments into their digital channels through Prometeo’s ready-to-use widget.”
When paying, users can “select their country, financial institution, and log in with their bank account credentials to confirm the payment.” Then the payment “goes directly from their bank account to the merchants bank account through Prometeo’s API infrastructure: there are no intermediaries, which makes the user’s purchasing experience fast and with no chargeback costs.”
Historically, payment methods through credit and debit cards “have dominated the market despite presenting high fees, a lack of market coverage, and slow and complicated payment conciliation processes for merchants.” Prometeo’s A2A solution “solves the problems associated with these traditional payment forms.”
Ximena Aleman, Co-founder and Co-CEO at Prometeo Open Banking, said:
“It’s crazy but having no intermediaries in the digital payment process is highly disruptive. We believe that payment infrastructure is the natural next step for Open Banking in the region. With our A2A payment solution we are completely changing the paradigm for digital payments, allowing our customers to turn their own bank accounts into their payment gateways.”
This A2A solution is “completely backed up by each bank’s infrastructure which reduces the risks of chargebacks or unidentified payments in real-time.”
Aleman added:
“We are providing merchants a ready-to-use widget to receive real-time payments directly on their bank account, with an instant conciliation process and lower fees than what they pay for any other payment service,” says Aleman. “Our payment process is completely automated from start to finish.”
In Europe, A2A continues to grow—”as revealed by Paypers’ Payment Methods report—with countries like the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, and the Baltics leading this new payment trend.”
LATAM has been “moving toward digital payments technologies for the past two years with the rise of e-wallets and the trend of the cashless digital economy, but A2A solutions were unavailable in the region—until now.”
Security is “at the core of Prometeo’s architecture and development to respond to the demand for enhanced cybersecurity features, personal and financial data safety, and fraud prevention.”
A2A payments “operate through financial institutions’ systems, adding another layer of security with strong customer authentication and adhering to international payments regulations.” The company is also “certified in ISO 27001 and possesses the Certification and Information Security License.”
The company’s API infrastructure currently “supports more than 40 financial institutions and over 110 APIs across 10 countries in Latin America.” The service is “already available in Colombia, Peru and Uruguay and will expand to Mexico and Chile in the upcoming months.”