2026-04-16 | Instrução Normativa BCB 725

Central Bank of Brazil Normative Instruction No. 725 of April 16, 2026

The Central Bank of Brazil issued Normative Instruction No. 725 to establish the guidelines, conditions, and deadlines for production testing of the optimized payment transaction initiation journey with data sharing within the Open Finance ecosystem. The regulation mandates that participating institutions implement specific technical integrations, security tests, and minimum transaction volumes by April and June 2026 to ensure functionality and market stability. This directive applies to account-holding, data-transmitting, payment-initiating, and data-receiving institutions, with detailed criteria outlined in its annexes.

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CENTRAL BANK OF BRAZIL NORMATIVE INSTRUCTION NO. 725, OF APRIL 16, 2026

Document revoked by Central Bank of Brazil Normative Instruction No. 740, of May 29, 2026.

Establishes the guidelines, conditions, and deadlines for the conduct of production tests by participating institutions regarding the sharing of the optimized payment transaction initiation service with data sharing (optimized journey) in the Open Finance .

The Heads of the Financial System Regulation Department (Denor), the Department of Supervision of Cooperatives and Non-Bank Institutions (Desuc), and the Banking Supervision Department (Desup), in the exercise of the powers conferred upon them by art. 23, item I, letter "a", of the Internal Regulations of the Central Bank of Brazil, annexed to BCB Resolution No. 340, of September 21, 2023, having in view the provisions of art. 44, § 1º, of Joint Resolution No. 1, of May 4, 2020, and art. 7 of BCB Resolution No. 406, of August 2, 2024,

R E S O L V E:

Art. 1º This Normative Instruction establishes the guidelines, conditions, and deadlines for the conduct of production tests by participating institutions regarding the sharing of the optimized payment transaction initiation service with data sharing (optimized journey) in the Open Finance .

Art. 2º Institutions acting as data-receiving institutions and payment transaction initiating institutions are permitted to offer the optimized payment transaction initiation service with data sharing (optimized journey), in accordance with the rules set forth in the Open Finance Data and Services Scope Manual.

Art. 3º Institutions acting as data-transmitting institutions and account-holding institutions must make available journeys related to the optimized payment transaction initiation service with data sharing (optimized journey), in accordance with the scope provided for in the Open Finance Data and Services Scope Manual.

Art. 4º Institutions offering the optimized journey in the Open Finance must adhere to the following deadlines: I - from April 22, 2026, on a limited basis for production testing; and II - from June 22, 2026, to the general public.

Art. 5º Production tests, during the period referred to in Art. 4, item I, regarding the optimized journey must: I - be conducted by participating institutions that will implement the service, regardless of whether participation is mandatory or optional; II - be conducted using the production validation tool developed by the Open Finance Governance Structure and among the participating institutions that will implement the service; III - be restricted to a pre-selected client base jointly selected by the account-holding institution and the payment transaction initiating institution, plus a list of clients provided by the Open Finance Governance Structure and a list of clients provided by the Central Bank of Brazil; and IV - cover the functionalities of the API and customer experience journeys as specified by current regulation and the documentation of the Open Finance Governance Structure.

§ 1º In the case of payment transaction initiating institutions, the tests must be conducted by the institutions that will offer the service to the general public from June 22, 2026.

§ 2º Payment transaction initiating institutions that do not yet act as data-transmitting institutions may participate in the production tests referred to in this Normative Instruction.

§ 3º The offering of the service to the general public is conditioned on acting as a data-transmitting institution for all scopes applicable to the institution falling under the provisions of § 2º.

§ 4º The Central Bank of Brazil may, at its discretion, determine the conduct of tests between pairs of account-holding institutions and payment transaction initiating institutions.

§ 5º The detailed scope of the tests is found in Annexes I and II of this Normative Instruction.

Art. 6º The implementation of the participating institutions referenced must be fully completed and functional: I - in Art. 2º, when they begin production testing; and II - in Art. 3º, within the deadline referred to in Art. 4, item I.

Art. 7º This Normative Instruction enters into force on the date of its publication.

MARDILSON FERNANDES QUEIROZ Head of Denor ADALBERTO FELINTO DA CRUZ JUNIOR Head of Desuc RICARDO SIVIERI ZENI Head of Desup

ANNEX I TO CENTRAL BANK OF BRAZIL NORMATIVE INSTRUCTION NO. 725, OF APRIL 16, 2026

This Annex details the criteria for production tests regarding the sharing of the optimized payment transaction initiation service with data sharing (optimized journey) in the Open Finance , according to the role played by participating institutions, whether as account-holding and data-transmitting institutions or as payment transaction initiating and data-receiving institutions.

Production tests must comply with the regulations of the Central Bank of Brazil and with the production testing policy of the Open Finance Governance Structure.

  1. General Criteria

With a view to ensuring the adequate quality of production tests, the Open Finance Governance Structure must evaluate the compliance with the requirements set forth in this Annex by the institutions participating in the production tests of the optimized journey.

This evaluation must be carried out at control points to be conducted on the following dates: I - May 8, 2026; II - May 22, 2026; III - June 5, 2026; and IV - June 22, 2026

1.1 Integration with Tools

Institutions participating in the production tests of the optimized journey must ensure adequate integration with the metrics collection platform (PCM) and have 95% or more of paired calls with status "PAIRED" and 100% of additional data (additionalInfos) reported for monitoring related to the Smart Transfers product and sharing of the payment transaction initiation service without redirection (non-redirection journey), as well as for monitoring consents for data sharing (API Consents).

Institutions participating in the production tests of the optimized journey must ensure adequate quality of the information reported to the PCM.

No quality ticket from the PCM related to payments may be open at the control points defined in section 1.

1.2 Bilateral Behavior

Institutions participating in the production tests of the optimized journey must ensure that no bilateral ticket related to the tests is open during the control points defined in section 1.

  1. Specific Criteria

2.1 Engagement

The engagement of institutions participating in the production tests of the optimized journey is a fundamental step to test their maturity. Therefore, institutions must guarantee a minimum quantity of volume for the creation of consents and settlement of payments for each of the products tested in the optimized journey, and the data regarding these consents and payments must be identified through the PCM.

In order to ensure that the minimum total quantity of volume for the creation of consents and settlement of payments is reached, there will be intermediate monitoring of the volume according to the control points defined in section 1, at percentages of 30, 50, 80, and 100, respectively.

2.1.1 Account-Holding and Data-Transmitting Institutions

Account-holding and data-transmitting institutions must ensure that, at minimum: I - one hundred Smart Transfer consents are created, of which at least twenty are related to legal entities, where applicable; II - one hundred account links (non-redirection journey) are created, of which at least twenty are related to legal entities, where applicable; III - forty Smart Transfer payments are settled, of which at least ten are related to legal entities, where applicable; and IV - forty non-redirection journey payments are settled, of which at least ten are related to legal entities, where applicable.

The institutions referred to in this subsection must ensure that: I - a consent is created and a payment related to Smart Transfers is settled, with at least 50% of the payment transaction initiating and data-receiving institutions participating in the production tests of the optimized journey; and II - an account link is created and a payment related to the non-redirection journey is settled, with at least 50% of the payment transaction initiating and data-receiving institutions participating in the production tests of the optimized journey.

2.1.2 Payment Transaction Initiating and Data-Receiving Institutions

Payment transaction initiating and data-receiving institutions must ensure that, at minimum: I - one hundred Smart Transfer consents are created, of which at least twenty are related to legal entities, where applicable; II - one hundred account links (non-redirection journey) are created, of which at least twenty are related to legal entities, where applicable; III - forty Smart Transfer payments are settled, of which at least ten are related to legal entities, where applicable; and IV - forty non-redirection journey payments are settled, of which at least ten are related to legal entities, where applicable.

The institutions referred to in this subsection must ensure that: I - a consent is created and a payment related to Smart Transfers is settled with: a) at least 50% of the account-holding institutions participating in the production tests of the optimized journey; and b) all major brands of account-holding institutions listed in Annex II; and II - an account link is created and a payment related to the non-redirection journey is settled with: a) at least 50% of the account-holding institutions participating in the production tests of the optimized journey; and b) all major brands of account-holding institutions, as defined in Annex II.

2.2 Functional and Security Behavior

Account-holding and data-transmitting institutions must conduct functional and security tests, achieving success in all tests of the Manual Production Validation Tool (FVP), per server, for individual and legal entity users, where applicable: I - for Smart Transfers, in five short-duration tests; II - for the non-redirection journey, in five short-duration tests; and III - for other scenarios, in three short-duration tests.

Institutions for which the Open Finance Governance Structure's supplier does not have an account are responsible for their own achievement of success. The remaining institutions will have their tests executed by the contracted supplier.

The tests will be executed by varying the environments between mobile Android, mobile IOS, and desktop .

In view of the provisions of Art. 5º, and considering that, according to BCB Resolution No. 463, of April 22, 2025, the maximum deadlines for responding to tickets related to the production tests of the optimized journey may be reduced by the Central Bank of Brazil, a maximum deadline of two business days must be assigned for responding to tickets generated within the scope of this subsection.

2.3 Journey Implementation

The implementation of the journey according to the definition in the regulation and the Open Finance User Experience Guide is a fundamental aspect to ensure standardization in the customer experience across different participating institutions.

To evaluate the degree of adherence of institutions participating in the production tests of the optimized journey, the Open Finance Governance Structure will apply a questionnaire based on the current User Experience Guide.

2.3.1 Account-Holding and Data-Transmitting Institutions

The tests will be conducted via mobile , with individual users, on the major brands of the institutions referred to in this subsection listed in Annex II, regarding the following scenarios: I - creation and cancellation of Smart Transfer consent; and II - creation, editing, and cancellation of non-redirection journey consent.

2.3.2 Payment Transaction Initiating and Data-Receiving Institutions

The tests will be divided into two groups as follows: I - test 1: conducted via mobile with individual users; and II - test 2: conducted preferably via desktop with legal entity users, where applicable.

The institutions referred to in this subsection must achieve success: I - in the creation and cancellation of the payment consent linked to Smart Transfers (test 1); II - in the creation and cancellation of the data consent linked to Smart Transfers (test 2); III - in the creation, editing, and cancellation of the account link linked to the non-redirection journey (test 1); and IV - in the creation and cancellation of the data consent linked to the non-redirection journey (test 2).

ANNEX II TO CENTRAL BANK OF BRAZIL NORMATIVE INSTRUCTION NO. 725, OF APRIL 16, 2026

The account-holding institutions and their major brands, referenced in Annex I, are as follows: I - Banco do Brasil (brand "Banco do Brasil" for individual and legal entity clients); II - Banco PAN (brand "Banco PAN" for individual clients); III - Bradesco (brand "Bradesco Pessoa Física" for individual clients and brand "Bradesco Pessoa Jurídica" for legal entity clients); IV - BTG Pactual (brand "BTG Banking" for individual clients and brand "BTG Empresas" for legal entity clients); V - C6 (brand "C6 Bank" for individual and legal entity clients); VI - Caixa Econômica Federal (brand "CAIXA" for individual and legal entity clients); VII - Digio (brand "Banco Digio" for individual clients); VIII - Itaú (brand "Itaú" for individual clients and brand "Itaú Empresas" for legal entity clients); IX - Mercado Pago (brand "Mercado Pago" for individual and legal entity clients); X - Neon Pagamentos (brand "Neon" for individual clients); XI - Nu Pagamentos (brand "Nubank" for individual and legal entity clients); XII - Pagseguro (brand "PagBank" for individual and legal entity clients); XIII - PicPay (brand "PicPay" for individual clients and brand "PicPay Negócios" for legal entity clients); XIV - Santander (brand "Banco Santander Pessoa Física" for individual clients and brand "Banco Santander Pessoa Jurídica" for legal entity clients); XV - Sicredi (brand "Sicredi" for individual and legal entity clients); and XVI - Sicoob (brand "Sicoob" for individual and legal entity clients).

NOTE 333/2026-BCB/DENOR, OF APRIL 16, 2026

Justifies the proposal for the issuance of a normative instruction that establishes the guidelines, conditions, and deadlines for the conduct of production tests by participating institutions regarding the sharing of the optimized payment transaction initiation service with data sharing (optimized journey) in the Open Finance .

Dear Heads of Denor, Desuc, and Desup,

This Note justifies the proposal for the issuance of a normative instruction by the Financial System Regulation Department (Denor), the Department of Supervision of Cooperatives and Non-Bank Institutions (Desuc), and the Banking Supervision Department (Desup), in the exercise of the power provided for in art. 23, item I, letter "a", of the Internal Regulations of the Central Bank of Brazil, annexed to BCB Resolution No. 340, of September 21, 2023, based on art. 44, §1º, of Joint Resolution No. 1, of May 4, 2020, and BCB Resolution No. 406, of August 2, 2024.

  1. Regarding this, the proposal concerns the issuance of a normative instruction that establishes the guidelines, conditions, and deadlines for the conduct of production tests by participating institutions regarding the sharing of the optimized payment transaction initiation service with data sharing (optimized journey) in the Open Finance .

  2. In compliance with the provisions of art. 5 of Law No. 13,874, of September 20, 2019, Decree No. 10,411, of June 30, 2020, determines that proposals for normative acts of general interest of economic agents formulated by federal direct, autarchic, and foundation administrative bodies and entities, as well as by collegiate bodies through the body or entity responsible for providing administrative support, must be preceded by a Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA).

  3. However, the proposal in question discloses the details of the production tests to be conducted by participating institutions regarding the optimized journey, a stage that is fundamental to ensuring the adequate functioning of this new journey, both in terms of functionality and security, so I consider that this proposal falls under the possibility of exemption from RIA established in art. 4, item V, letters "b" and "c", of Decree No. 10,411, of 2020, as it aims to preserve the integrity of financial markets and payment systems.

For your consideration.

JANAÍNA PIMENTA ATTIE Consultant of Denor MARCO ANTONIO GUIMARÃES VERRONE Deputy Head of Desup IVENS ARUA NEVES DE MIRANDA Deputy Head of Desuc

Agreed.

MARDILSON FERNANDES QUEIROZ Head of Denor RICARDO SIVIERI ZENI Head of Desup

ADALBERTO FELINTO DA CRUZ JUNIOR Head of Desuc