Brazil begins rollout of Pix national instant payments platform

INSTANT: Pix enables consumers to make mobile payments via QR codes or ‘Pix keys’

Pix, Brazil’s instant payment scheme, has gone live in a “restricted operation phase” prior to full implementation later this month, the Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) has revealed.

“From November 3 to 15, some customers of the 762 institutions approved to offer Pix will be able to experience the first transactions with Pix, the instant payment in Brazil,” BCB says.

“This restricted operation phase will have customers selected by the institutions, who will have access to all Pix’s functionalities, including the initiation of payments.”

When fully operational, Pix will enable consumers to make instant payments and transfers from their mobile phone using a QR code or the recipient’s registered “Pix key” that can take the form of their taxpayer ID number, email address, mobile phone number or a randomly generated set of letters and numbers. 

BCB announced its plans for the instant payments system and explained how it works in February 2020. The first day of the restricted operation phase saw BCB process 1,570 Pix transactions, according to ZDNet, with the bank’s Ȃngelo Duarte reported as saying that “all Pix systems operated smoothly throughout the day.”

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