Opinion – Ronaldo Lemos: Banks and RGs in the sights of Big Techs

An important piece of news has gone unnoticed in recent weeks. Apple has entered the “Open Banking” market. The reader may ask, “So what?”. Hence, discreetly the American giant begins to enter the space of two other giants: governments and banks.

In the case of banks, Apple acquired the credit analysis company called Credit Kudos. It can analyze a person’s credit profile in detail and in real time. For this, it uses as a parameter the data of the users’ own bank account, shared through an “open banking” scheme.

This strategy expands the avenue for immediate loans, embedded in any application or internet service. For example, if an app delivery guy needs resources to fix his motorcycle, he can get the resources right away without any bureaucracy, right in the delivery app itself. It is as if banking services are dispersed. And Apple wants not only to accelerate, but to be part of this spraying.

Along these lines, the fastest growing payment method in the world is the so-called BNPL (“Buy Now, Pay Later”). The consumer goes to the store and buys any product, being able to pay later in installments. For us Brazilians, this is nothing new. This has existed in the country for years.

In the US market it is a total novelty. The fear is that these new consumer credits will lead to another crisis in 2008. Caused this time not by the real estate market, but by consumers losing their line when buying “on credit” and not being able to pay later. This real-time credit analysis can help prevent another disaster.

In the governmental field, Apple entered with its Wallet application. The idea is to centralize identities and documents in digital format in a single place, with legal validity.

This puts pressure on governments across the planet to accelerate the creation of digital identities. At the same time, it puts Apple in the position of ultimate guardian of all these identities. For example, the state of Arizona in the US already issues its digital ID compatible with Apple’s Wallet. It is not difficult to conceive of the emergence of a 100% globally accepted digital passport, held by the company.

And Brazil in this? Our country has been going through a revolution in the field of digital identities caused by Gov.br. Along with Pix, it is a structuring technology. In this case, allowing authenticated access to a wide range of government services.

It already had a positive effect. The space for the elite digital certificate, the digital “identity” that had to be purchased annually (R$ 150) to access basic services such as income tax or social security, has diminished. At the same time, it can always be improved. It would be great if Gov.br adopted a decentralized architecture in the future, transferring attributions and control to the citizens at the end, instead of concentrating everything centrally. But it is premature to complain. The system is an achievement that for now deserves to be celebrated.

Apple, on the other hand, is waiting for these technologies to develop in order to add them. In the world we live in, the aggregator is more important than the provider. Banks and governments beware.

***Thanks to Carlos Gueiros for the always great nudges.

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