The next evolution in conformance testing for Open Finance Brazil

Erick Domingues, Product Manager – Ecosystem Trust Platform

The milestones for Open Finance in Brazil keep on coming!

We’ve previously explained the role Raidiam plays in providing a conformance and certification service, including the use of Automated Production tests to help enforce API standardisation for live implementation.

On 1 April 2023, we sent the next stage in Open Finance’s world-leading ecosystem monitoring service live!

What does this mean?

Since 2021, Raidiam has been working closing with Open Finance to ensure that an effective conformance and certification process is in operation, providing the most robust holistic ecosystem monitoring that exists anywhere in the world. As the first time this has been undertaken, it has been an iterative process working closely with the Open Finance team and developing the process along the way.

During 2022 it became apparent that only doing Sandbox Testing was not enough to provide the watertight assurance that all ecosystem participants were always fully conformant with the Standards. It was agreed to widen the scope to include live production tests and Raidiam began building the Open Finance Production Validation Tools.

These Tools run tests against all the institutions participating in the ecosystem to ensure that the Security Standards they’ve put into operation in the live environment are aligned with what was certified in the Sandbox (i.e. that nothing has changed from what they were assessed against in the testing phase). Raidiam has so far been running weekly tests against 180 Servers registered on the Participant Directory to confirm if they are compliant with the Security Standards (DCR).

This latest milestone marks the launch of the second stage of the Production Validation Tools, which delivers a second deployment capable of executing any type of Production Test against live ecosystem participants, using a platform called FVP that is fully managed and operated by Raidiam.

It means that the system in now capable of confirming in production that a live participant can execute the approval of a consent and grant access to protected resources or data. This test is at the core of determining whether a participating institution really is operational with the Open Finance Standards.

Why is this so great?

Quite simply, it’s taken what was already the most sophisticated and robust ecosystem testing in place anywhere in the world to the next level. Security has always been at the heart of everything we do, and this is another layer to ensure that the operation of the ecosystem is as stable and secure as it can be, for everyone involved.

This extended scope of the testing has been highly anticipated by the Open Finance Brazil Initial Structure and welcomed by TPPs who believe it will be beneficial for overcoming interoperability issues.

The importance attached to these latest conformance and certification tools by the Central Bank is clear with their use now formalised as part of the regulations.

This achievement has been another proud moment for the Raidiam team, and a great example of our approach to work. We always strive to improve and push the boundaries of what is possible to meet our clients’ needs.

If you’re interested in hearing more (and can speak Portuguese) then a recording of a workshop held with the Open Finance ecosystem where I explained the Production Validation Tools and provided a demo of them is available here.