Pix Surges 53% as Digital Payments Overtake Cards in Brazil

The story behind Latin America’s digital payments boom isn’t necessarily about consumers abandoning cash.

It’s about a financial ecosystem where mobile wallets and instant transfers are not just tools of convenience but engines of empowerment.

As governments and FinTechs scale solutions from Brazil’s Pix to Argentina’s MODO, the shift is turning households and small businesses that once lived outside the formal banking system into active participants in the digital economy.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Digital Developments: Charting Digital Payment Growth in Latin America” finds that the region’s adoption of mobile wallets, account-to-account transfers and real-time payments is accelerating financial inclusion as much as it is changing consumer habits. Cash’s dominance has eroded over the last decade. By 2030, researchers project two-thirds of all eCommerce spending in Latin America will move through digital rails.

Digital payments already account for 48% of eCommerce transaction value and 30% of point-of-sale value in 2024, up from 14% and 2% a decade earlier. By 2030, those shares are projected to reach 66% and 49% respectively, while cash’s role at checkout is expected to fall to 17%.

Brazil’s Pix processed 64 billion transactions in 2024, a 53% jump year over year, surpassing debit and credit card volumes by 80%. New features such as tap-to-pay and automatic recurring payments are expected to accelerate adoption further.

Mobile wallets are now used by 62% of Latin Americans for regular payments, with Argentina (65%) and Panama (63%) showing the highest adoption. Peer-to-peer transfers remain the most popular feature, with 78% of consumers using them to send money.

What makes these figures more than a growth story is the infrastructure they are building.

Digital channels are reducing remittance costs for families who depend on cross-border income, expanding access to credit through prepaid and buy now, pay later products, and giving small merchants new ways to accept payments without investing in expensive terminals.

Government policies, from regulatory frameworks to subsidized internet expansion, are accelerating these gains. More than 3,000 FinTechs now operate across 26 Latin American markets, filling gaps that traditional banks often left open.

Challenges remain. Rural connectivity lags, regulatory differences slow cross-border interoperability, and card networks still hold ground in many sectors. But the momentum is unmistakable.

By marrying mobile-first technology with inclusion-driven policy, Latin America is rewriting the rules of financial participation. For consumers, that means not only faster checkout but a broader seat at the economic table. For businesses and policymakers, it signals a test of how far digital rails can carry growth in a region long defined by its reliance on cash.