Red Hat SummitSuccess Story
Banco da Amazônia S.A. brings financial services to remote populations with Red Hat
Overview
Banco da Amazônia S.A. (BASA) adopted Red Hat® solutions and automation capabilities to develop BASA Digital, a new platform that’s breaking down barriers to finance and credit for family and subsistence enterprises across Brazil’s Amazon region.
The bank’s mission is to develop a sustainable Amazon with credit and effective solutions, from large enterprises financing structuring projects to small rural entrepreneurs, with a focus on the smaller accounts. A key driver is its desire to promote sustainable and efficient regional development in remote or difficult-to-access areas.
Banco da Amazônia S.A. is an Open Capital Society (traded in BM&FBOVESPA under the ticker BAZA3), controlled by the Brazilian federal government (95% of the shares). The bank is responsible for the management and operations of the Constitutional Fund for the North Region Development and Financing in the Amazon region, which accounts for more than half of Brazil’s territorial area.
- INDUSTRY
Financial services - REGION
Latin America (LATAM) - HEADQUARTERS
Belém, Pará, Brazil - SIZE
2,835 employees
Challenge
Accelerate funding to subsistence activities
People in the remote Amazon region rely heavily on subsistence activities―family farming, artisanal fishing, and mining and extraction. However, small operations in these areas often struggle to access basic financial services, such as banking and credit, which support investment in these businesses. Additionally, meeting environmental and compliance requirements can be a long and costly process. Banco da Amazonia S.A. needed to be able to provide services quickly, without incurring high operational costs.
“We’re talking about a region with continental-scale distances and limited communication and transport networks,” said Roberto Schwartz, Credit Director at Banco da Amazônia S.A. “We needed to develop a service that customers who often don’t have any banking services could access from their own property.”
Banco da Amazônia S.A. developed BASA Digital as an integrated platform to accelerate vital funding to maintain and develop local subsistence projects. The platform lets Banco da Amazônia S.A. credit agents process credit quickly and effectively, reducing barriers between rural producers and financial services.
Building the platform, BASA Digital developers needed to:
- Allow integrations with old systems from several different IT departments.
- Create an effective API management tool to centralize multiple services on BASA Digital’s web and mobile platforms.
- Maintain a secure and reliable environment to store information and maintain the integrity of the bank’s systems.
Solution
Develop an agile, innovative platform
Banco da Amazônia S.A. accredited credit agents form the backbone of the bank’s distribution process. So a key requirement for BASA Digital was to give them an integrated platform to support agile credit process management and speed up key tasks significantly.
Banco da Amazônia S.A. wanted to decrease the time agents needed to do business. From customer registration, issuing a proposal and tracking progress to issuing a credit note and releasing funds, Banco da Amazônia S.A. needed to help its agents speed up their processes.
The solution was to develop automated and integrated processes, using Red Hat products and services. As an innovator of container technologies, Kubernetes, cloud computing, and DevOps, Red Hat has a long history of modernizing bank infrastructures and processes, making them agile and competitive. Open source solutions would also allow customization without compromising security and reliability.
In 2019, Banco da Amazônia S.A. chose Red Hat OpenShift® to modernize its application development. In 2021, the bank developed BASA Digital using Red Hat solutions.
By using Red Hat’s open source technology, Banco da Amazônia S.A. can build flexible, scalable, and customized systems that meet multiple needs―from robust, agile IT infrastructures to effective and secure applications. Open source standards also facilitate integration with other systems, applications, and technologies.
To further enhance these benefits, Banco da Amazônia S.A. has a dedicated Red Hat Technical Account Manager (TAM) on-site daily. TAMs serve as more than just technicians. They proactively open support cases, collaborate with Red Hat engineers, and directly assist Banco da Amazônia S.A. to ensure optimal use of open source solutions.
Software & Services used by Banco da Amazônia S.A.
Red Hat Services
Red Hat Fuse
Red Hat Single Sign On
Business outcome
Bring “revolutionary” access through improved efficiencies
BASA Digital has created increased levels of operational efficiency. Application processes that once took 6 months have been cut to just 24 hours, bringing financial services and credit to a population that previously struggled to access them.
The resulting figures are impressive:
- In 2022, BRL314.8 million ($64.2 million) was contracted by BASA Digital―a 370.4% increase since 2021.
- Operations contracted through BASA Digital also account for 43.8% of Programa Nacional de Fortalecimento da Agricultura Familiar (PRONAF) contracts―a national program that focuses on developing and strengthening family agriculture.
- 16,860 contracts were signed in 2022―a 287.3% increase since 2021.
“It’s easy to offer credit in urban areas; doing it in Alto Solimões is completely different,” said Schwartz. “But in 2022, 50% of the credit offered by the bank was to rural areas through the BASA Digital platform. That’s revolutionary.”
The success of BASA Digital was recognized by Brazil’s prestigious Banking Transformation Awards, a key indicator of quality and efficiency in the country’s financial sector. As a winner in the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) category, BASA Digital was praised for its work in ecosystem preservation, social inclusion, and concern for underserved communities in the Amazon.
Banco da Amazônia S.A. now plans to expand BASA Digital projects to areas such as green energy and reforestation, and support even more investment in the Amazon region following the United Nations’ COP30 conference in BASA Digital’s home city, Belém. It also plans to extend its deployment of Red Hat products to bring all legacy platforms into containerized environments and build a strong foundation to move to the cloud.
Having a strong manufacturer with cultural openness like Red Hat was fundamental for the bank to build process automation and integration.
We needed a DevOps structure and agile working methods; we got them all from the partnership with Red Hat. Without that approach, we wouldn’t have achieved the results we’re achieving through this project.
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