Pix Turns 5 as Brazil’s Real-Time Payments Shift Accelerates

Real-time payments continue to expand across the globe through several use cases as businesses and households lean into speed.

The shift has been visible in markets ranging from Asia to Latin America, with adoption rising in everything from daily bill payments to supplier settlements. The steady movement away from traditional batch systems toward instant clearing has been more aggressive in some markets than others. Rapid uptake has been especially notable in tandem with government-led initiatives that build national rails designed for interoperability from the start.

When government authorities mandate open participation and provide the technical framework, the network effects are palpable, and Brazil is one of the clearest examples.

The country’s central bank launched Pix for full operation on Nov. 16, 2020. What began as an effort five years ago to modernize the national payments infrastructure has moved beyond any initial peer-to-peer activity. In the latest government statistics, as of the end of last month, there were nearly 7.3 billion Pix transactions in October, up from 5.7 billion in the same month last year.

Digital Consumers

This momentum aligns with broader shifts in consumer digital behavior documented in PYMNTS research. The PYMTNS Intelligence report “How the World Does Digital: A Global Benchmark Of Consumer Digital Transformation” found that Brazil was the most digitally engaged country across a variety of activities from banking to booking travel, with a total of 361 activity days per month. Generation Z and millennials roughly tied for the most digitally engaged generation, with 411 days for Gen Z and 405 for millennials, all of which sets the stage for real-time commerce and bill payments.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Pocket Revolution: How Mobile Wallets Are Changing Payments Worldwide” revealed that mobile wallets accounted for 35% of online transactions and 21% of in-store transactions across the 11 countries studied. The report highlighted the extent to which consumers have made digital banking and mobile payments central to their everyday financial lives. Local rails and national payment schemes, including Pix, contribute to that shift by offering direct, immediate transfer capability that fits naturally into mobile devices.

Meanwhile, Brazilians made 61% of their latest retail purchases, whether online or in-store, using a mobile device as of this year, a 10% increase since 2022, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Global Digital Shopping Index: Brazil Edition,” commissioned by Visa Acceptance Solutions.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Digital Developments: Charting Digital Payment Growth in Latin America” discovered that FinTechs and merchants rapidly layered Pix functionality into their digital channels, allowing consumers to pay for retail purchases, online orders, services and business invoices using the same instant rail. In all of 2024, Pix transactions logged a 53% year-over-year increase, surpassing the combined total of debit and credit card transactions by 80%.

“In Brazil, the move to digital is driven primarily by account-to-account (A2A) solutions rather than by wallets alone, highlighting the importance of real-time, low-cost alternatives in influencing payment behavior,” the “Pocket Revolution” report said.

Pix Automatico, which launched in June, allows consumers to set up recurring payments tied to their banks or digital wallets.

In an interview with PYMNTS in tandem with the launch, PagBrasil CEO Ralf Germer said the offering means the population of 60% of Brazilians who don’t have credit cards will benefit, as will the small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that previously lacked access to a proper system for recurring payments.