In November 2020, the Brazilian Central Bank launched Pix. Three years later, it has become the most widely used payment method in the country. Not the most talked about, not the most trendy. Most used. However, when I participate in conversations about fintech outside of Latin America, most operators still treat Pix as a curiosity. Something local. Something interesting but not relevant to their world.
This is wrong.
Pix is a real-time payment infrastructure, created and regulated by Banco Central do Brasil, that operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Transfers are settled in seconds. For individuals, it is free. For merchants, fees are a fraction of what the card networks charge. Anyone with a bank account or digital wallet in Brazil can use it. It was designed by the Brazilian Central Bank from scratch as a national infrastructure, built to modernize how money is moved for 210 million people.
The results speak for themselves. By 2023, Pix has already accounted for 16% of e-commerce transactions in Brazil, and its compound annual growth rate is expected to reach 26% between 2023 and 2026. Credit cards still account for 48% of e-commerce in Latin America, but the distance between cards and Pix is shrinking quarter by quarter. Bank transfers are generally growing faster, with a CAGR of 38% over the same period. Something structural is changing in how Brazilians pay, and the card networks know it.
Pix is one part of a much larger infrastructure overhaul that most people outside Brazil have barely registered. Brazil’s open finance framework is one of the most advanced in the world. It allows consumers to share their financial data across institutions, opening the door to better credit scoring, personalized financial products, and seamless payment experiences. Pix is the transaction layer. Open finance is the intelligence layer. Together they form the backbone of a truly modern financial system, not an old one being patched up.
For any trader or company looking to do business in Brazil, the implications are clear. A payment strategy that doesn’t integrate Pix is already outdated. And this is not just a Brazilian story. Across Latin America, digital wallets are growing by 20% year-on-year. Argentina already leads the region with 30% of e-commerce spending going through digital wallets. Each country finds its own path, but it is clear that the trend is away from cash, away from legacy card infrastructure, and toward instant account-based payments.
Other Latin American countries are watching Brazil closely. Colombia, Mexico and Chile are all developing their own versions of real-time payment systems, many of which are directly inspired by what Bix has achieved. The rules of the game are being shaped in real time, and the countries that pay attention are the ones that will move fastest.
I have spent years creating a licensed payment infrastructure in Brazil LaventicaWhat I can say is that the infrastructural transformation that is happening in this country is far from over. Pix Parcelado, Pix Garantido, and new credit functions built on top of Pix are all in development or early launch. The system is evolving rapidly, and each iteration makes it harder for traditional payment paths to compete.
For those of us who understand this market from the inside, Brazil now represents one of the biggest opportunities in global fintech. At LaFinteca, we’re building for what comes next. The rest of the world will catch up. recently.
by Dmytro RokinCEO at LaFinteca
