Brazil’s Pix raises hopes of digital payments system

Brazil has a new instant payment system, which is backed by the central bank.

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It is called Pix. Majority of Brazilians are using it to buy vegetables as well as do high-end shopping with it.

When people offer to pay, the immediate question the vendors ask is, “Do you have Pix?” To use it requires a simple registration process. It requires a bank account, email and a phone number. One registers for Pix through a tax identity number, akin to the social security number in the United States.

Usually, such instant payments systems are managed by a consortium of banks. But in Brazil, the central bank is the chief backer of the payment mode. It was launched in 2020, and it picked up momentum during the Covid period.

While it has digitized transactions, Brazil seems to have made the Big Brother in the neighbourhood, the United States, hostile. Meta was planning to launch a WhatsApp payment system around the same time in Brazil, but the Brazilian authorities delayed in granting permission until 2021.