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Payment institution website in Brazil: what to publish
A payment institution website is the website of a company authorized by Brazil's Central Bank (Banco Central do Brasil, BCB) to provide payment services. It publishes more than brand and product: its status as a payment institution and its service types, the ombudsman, clear information for the customer, the account contract and fees, and the Pix brand.
The pages I read in October 2026 for this search term explain what a payment institution is, not what its website is required to show. This article takes the Central Bank's rules and says what each one requires, where it lives and since when. It complements the pages a fintech website needs to have.
In 2025, Wama designed and developed the app for Cappta, a payment institution with payment acquiring and a white-label digital account. In a regulated institution's project, part of the content is text the rules require, with a specific place for it to sit.
What does a payment institution's website need to publish?
Five sets of information, each with its own rule. The table summarizes what's mandatory, where it lives and since when, for the authorized institution; companies operating under a partner's license come up further on. It's what sets this project apart from what changes compared with a regular corporate website.
Rule | What it requires | Where it lives on the website | Since when |
|---|---|---|---|
BCB Resolution 80, Art. 5, § 4 | Clear status on all channels; service types disclosed on the website | Footer, home page and services page | 2021; institutions authorized earlier, by 12/31/2022 |
BCB Resolution 28, Arts. 8 and 14 | Ombudsman phone number on the home page; semiannual disclosure | Footer and ombudsman page | 12/01/2020 |
BCB Resolution 155, Art. 4 | Clear information to decide; documents in plain language | Product, fees and documents | 03/01/2022 |
BCB Resolution 96, Art. 6 | Minimum account contract and fact sheet before signing up | Account page and sign-up | 03/01/2022 |
Pix Brand Manual | Pix brand mandatory in materials that promote Pix | Home page and product page | Version 1.6, 05/14/2025 |
Payment institution status and service types: BCB Resolution 80
BCB Resolution No. 80, of March 25, 2021, asks for three things in Article 5, paragraph 4: the words Instituição de Pagamento (Payment Institution) in the legal name, the payment institution status stated clearly on communication and customer service channels, and the payment service types disclosed on the website.
In practice, that's three places: legal name and CNPJ in the footer of every page, a sentence on the home page saying what the company is, and a services page that translates the service types in Article 6 of Law 12,865 into customer language. The eight service types are in the cluster guide. Anyone evaluating the institution checks this on the Central Bank's Encontre uma instituição (Find an institution) tool.
Ombudsman on the website: what does BCB Resolution 28 require?
Two fixed elements: the ombudsman's toll-free phone number, kept up to date and accessible from the home page; and, every six months, the disclosure of information about the ombudsman's activities. Both are in BCB Resolution No. 28, of October 23, 2020.
Article 8 asks for broad disclosure of the ombudsman, including on the channels that promote products, and the same number on statements, contracts and advertising. Article 13 requires a semiannual report with base dates of June 30 and December 31, and Article 14 requires the information about its activities to be disclosed on the website. That creates a living page, with a list of reports that grows twice a year.
This is where the CMS decides the project. At Wama, the client edits the website through the CMS without touching the design, and people who only publish content use the content editor role. A collection of ombudsman reports leaves the semiannual publication with whoever is responsible for it; the CMS content editor that publishes without touching the design has its own article.
Fees, contract and fact sheet: what changes on the product page?
The account page needs to let the customer decide before signing up. BCB Resolution No. 155, of October 14, 2021, requires clear and accurate information for free choice, with costs, penalties and risks, and plain language in documents meant for the public (Article 4, items III and IV), effective since March 1, 2022.
BCB Resolution No. 96, of May 19, 2021, covers the payment account contract. Article 6 lists the minimum content, and paragraph 2 creates the piece almost no website has: before signing up, a concise essential information fact sheet with the account's features, the security measures and how to look up the fees.
That's three website deliverables: fees outside the contract PDF, the fact sheet next to the open-account button, and documents with version and date. Since Resolution 155 asks for barrier-free service to cancel, cancellation also lives on the website. On the app side, what the rules require from the app, from the store listing to sign-up is a separate article.
How the Pix brand fits into the website
As a communication piece, with rules. The Pix Brand Usage Manual, version 1.6 of May 14, 2025, is part of the Pix Regulation (Pix is Brazil's instant payment system): the brand is mandatory in participants' advertising materials that promote Pix, in physical and digital media. The payment methods section on the home page and the product page that mentions Pix are communication pieces.
The rules that trip websites up most: the brand never appears as the logo alone; the allowed colors are Pix green, black and, on a dark background, white; and, with more than one payment brand on the page, the Pix brand gets equal proportions, colors and frequency, with none of the others larger than the symbol. What applies to the product screen is in what Pix has already decided about the app screen.
What changed in 2026, and what isn't your obligation?
For payment institutions, the content of the rules didn't change in 2026; the reach did. BCB Resolution No. 552, of March 3, 2026, effective upon publication, brought authorized virtual asset service providers into the scope of Resolutions 28 and 155. An authorized exchange now owes the same ombudsman phone number on the home page and the same clear information.
The other side of the fence is the fintech operating under a partner's license. The obligations above belong to the authorized institution; the fintech's website needs to say who provides the service, a rule covered in the identification of the providing institution that BaaS requires on every screen.
In 2026, Wama did the branding, platform design and website for Stric, infrastructure that lets companies operate as white-label digital banks, and there the content starts by naming the regulated party. As for the customer notices BCB Resolution 587 brings for 2027, they live in the app, not on the website.
How to put regulatory content into the website project
By treating each item in the table as scope, with an owner and a place. The most expensive mistake is finalizing the design and finding out in the last week that the ombudsman, fact sheet and fees are missing.
List what applies. Status and service types apply to every authorized institution; the rest depends on the customer profile, the account offered and participation in Pix.
Decide who writes it. Service types, fact sheet and fees come from legal and product; who adapts them into customer language is defined in the brief that lists regulatory content before design.
Give each element a fixed place. Footer, ombudsman page with reports, editable fees and versioned documents.
Leave the semiannual publication with the client. A CMS collection and an editor trained at handoff.
At Wama, a corporate website takes 4 to 6 weeks, and the timeline slips because of content that doesn't arrive, slow approvals and scope changes. On a payment institution's website, the content that doesn't arrive is usually the regulatory content, so it goes into the schedule in the first week. After handoff, the project sits in the client's account, with no monthly contract: CMS training, a warranty and an open channel are enough to publish a report every six months.
Common mistakes on payment institution websites
Ombudsman phone number only on the contact page. The rule requires access from the home page.
Ombudsman report that stops after the second half of the year. Disclosure is semiannual.
Fees only inside the contract PDF. The fact sheet needs to say how to look them up beforehand.
Pix brand in running text, without the symbol, or smaller than the card brands.
Payment institution status in light gray in the footer, unreadable on mobile.
Frequently asked questions
Does every payment institution need an ombudsman?
No. BCB Resolution 28 requires an ombudsman for payment institutions that have individual customers, including sole proprietors, or micro and small businesses. Those serving only larger companies fall outside Article 2; those inside it publish the toll-free number on the home page and the semiannual disclosure.
What is the essential information fact sheet?
It's the summary BCB Resolution 96 requires to be delivered before the payment account is opened. It presents, concisely, the account's features, operating rules, security measures and how to look up the fees. On the website, it belongs next to the open-account button.
Does the ombudsman report need to be on the website?
Information about the ombudsman's activities needs to be disclosed on the website every six months, under Article 14 of BCB Resolution 28. The full report from Article 13, with base dates of June 30 and December 31, goes to internal audit, the audit committee and the board. The website publishes the public-facing part.
Does a crypto exchange follow the same website rules?
Partly. Since BCB Resolution 552, of March 3, 2026, authorized virtual asset service providers are within the scope of Resolutions 28 and 155: ombudsman phone number on the home page, semiannual disclosure and clear information. The status and service types from Resolution 80 still belong to payment institutions.
Does a fintech using a partner's license need to publish all of this?
Not in its own name. The obligations in Resolutions 80, 28 and 155 belong to the authorized institution. The partner fintech's website needs to make clear who that institution is and answer for its own communication. Mixing up the two roles creates the wrong question for the customer and the wrong answer for the regulator.
If your payment institution is going to redo its website and wants to treat status, ombudsman, fees and the Pix brand as scope from the first week, talk to Wama.
