How financial institutions can monetize traveler payments through Pix in Brazil

Key Takeaways

• Pix has become essential payment infrastructure in Brazil, making it increasingly important for financial institutions serving international travelers to connect users to the local payment ecosystem.
• As travelers increasingly adopt payment methods native to the countries they visit, financial institutions have an opportunity to remain central to the payment experience rather than allowing payment activity to move outside their own digital channels.
• RoamingPay enables financial institutions to keep the payment experience within their own platform, allowing travelers in Brazil to pay like a local without needing a Brazilian bank account.
• Through RoamingPay, users can initiate and authorize payments within their own banking app, while transactions are processed and settled locally through Pix in Brazil.
• By acting as an interoperability layer between payment ecosystems, RoamingPay enables financial institutions to strengthen customer engagement, create new monetization opportunities, and reinforce their position as digitally innovative providers of cross-border payment experiences.

Brazil has become one of the world’s leading real-time payment markets through Pix, the country’s own instant payment system created by the Central Bank of Brazil. According to ACI Worldwide’s Real-Time Payments: Economic Impact and Financial Inclusion report, Pix contributed $24.6 billion to the country’s economy in 2023 alone. Today, it is deeply embedded in everyday commerce, enabling instant account-to-account payments for over 170 million users across retail, transportation, hospitality, e-commerce, and peer-to-peer transactions.

As Pix has become the preferred way to pay in Brazil, it has also become increasingly relevant for international travelers. Visitors regularly encounter Pix QR codes and payment keys wherever they go, from restaurants and transportation services to hotels, entertainment venues, and local merchants.

This shift reflects a broader trend in international payments. As more countries develop their own domestic payment systems, travelers are increasingly encountering and adopting these local payment methods when making purchases abroad, moving away from cash and traditional card-based options. For example, seven out of ten Argentine travelers have reported using Pix during their trips to Brazil, and in April 2026 users made an average of 11.2 Pix payments per person.

While this improves the payment experience for consumers, it also creates a strategic challenge for financial institutions. The organizations that connect users to these payment experiences are often the ones that capture customer engagement, transaction volume, and monetization opportunities. Institutions that cannot participate risk becoming less central to the payment journey as customers travel abroad and payment activity moves into other digital ecosystems.

PagBrasil’s RoamingPay was designed to help financial institutions remain part of that journey. By enabling travelers to pay Pix QR codes and payment keys directly through the banking apps they already use, institutions can connect users to Brazil’s principal payment method while maintaining ownership of the customer experience.

In this article, we’ll explore how RoamingPay enables this experience, why maintaining ownership of the payment journey is becoming increasingly important for financial institutions, and how interoperable payment models can create new opportunities for engagement, continuity, and monetization in cross-border payments.

The challenge of remaining central to the customer experience abroad

For financial institutions serving international travelers, one of the biggest challenges in cross-border payments is remaining central to the payment experience as customers increasingly encounter and adopt payment methods native to the countries they visit.

When travelers need to make a payment in another country, convenience often becomes the priority. If their financial institution cannot provide a simple way to access the payment methods commonly used in that market, customers may turn to alternative providers that can.

This creates a strategic risk. Every payment that moves outside the institution’s own digital environment represents a lost opportunity for engagement, transaction visibility, and monetization. At the same time, alternative payment providers can become the primary interface for payment activity, weakening the institution’s role in the customer relationship.

Brazil offers a particularly clear example of this dynamic. Because Pix is so deeply embedded in everyday commerce, travelers frequently encounter situations where it is the preferred or most convenient way to pay. Financial institutions that can connect customers to this experience through their own channels are better positioned to remain relevant, while those that cannot risk ceding payment activity to competing providers.

The question is no longer whether customers will encounter local payment methods like Pix when they travel, because they already are. The question is how to take advantage of that opportunity and remain central to the user’s payment journey.

RoamingPay: Enabling Pix payments within the banking app

RoamingPay was created to address the key limitation of real-time cross-border payments: domestic payment systems were designed to operate locally, making it difficult for financial institutions to connect customers to local payment experiences while keeping those interactions within their own digital channels.

By acting as an interoperability layer between payment ecosystems, the RoamingPay platform bridges this gap without requiring institutions to build direct connectivity into domestic payment systems such as Pix. Instead, institutions can connect to these systems through a single integration and enable their customers to pay like locals through their very own banking app.

In practice, this means a traveler in Brazil can scan a Pix QR code or enter a Pix payment key and authorize the payment directly within their existing banking platform. The user then confirms the transaction as they normally would, while the payment itself is processed and settled locally via Pix in Brazil.

This model separates the customer experience from the settlement infrastructure operating behind the transaction. While merchants continue accepting Pix as they normally would, travelers remain within their institution’s own environment throughout the payment journey.

As a result, financial institutions can participate in local payment experiences without giving up ownership of the customer interaction. This helps preserve engagement, increase visibility into payment activity, and create new opportunities to monetize cross-border transactions while interoperability and local settlement infrastructure operate behind the scenes.

Want to explore how your institution can enable Pix payments in Brazil through RoamingPay? Speak with a specialist to learn more.

How it works: Paying a Pix QR code via an international banking app

For travelers in Brazil, the payment experience can remain entirely within the banking app they already use at home. Payment details are presented transparently within the institution’s own environment, allowing users to view the transaction amount in their home currency, review the payment information, and authorize the purchase before it is processed and settled locally via Pix.

Through RoamingPay, the payment flow works as follows:

1. Using their existing bank app, the traveler scans a Pix QR code or enters a Pix payment key at a merchant in Brazil.
2. RoamingPay recognizes the payment format and retrieves the payment details from the Brazilian payment network.
3. RoamingPay converts the transaction amount from Brazilian reais into USD or EUR.
4. The financial institution then converts the amount into the traveler’s local currency.
5. The traveler reviews the payment details directly in their banking app, with the amount displayed in their home currency, and authorizes the transaction.
6. Once approved, the merchant receives the payment in Brazilian reais in real time through the domestic Pix infrastructure, with RoamingPay handling settlement behind the scenes.

This structure allows financial institutions to offer a localized payment experience in Brazil without requiring users to adopt a new app or payment flow. At the same time, merchants continue receiving payments through the payment infrastructure they already use today — combining global payment access with local settlement.

The strategic value of enabling Pix within the banking app

For global financial institutions, enabling Pix payments through RoamingPay is not just about supporting transactions in Brazil. It’s about retaining customer engagement, transaction volume, and monetization opportunities that might otherwise migrate to other payment providers.

The following sections explore some of the key strategic and operational benefits this model can create for financial institutions.

Maintaining ownership of the payment experience

As digital payment ecosystems become increasingly fragmented across markets, financial institutions face growing competition for ownership of the payment experience.

When users rely on external apps, third-party wallets, or disconnected payment flows abroad, those providers become the primary interface for payment activity. The bank continues holding the account but loses visibility and engagement around the transaction itself.

By enabling travelers to pay Pix QR codes directly within their existing banking applications, RoamingPay helps institutions remain the primary interface for payment activity, even when users are interacting with a payment network abroad.

New monetization opportunities

Cross-border payments represent more than just transaction volume. They also create opportunities for financial institutions to deepen engagement and expand monetization within their existing digital ecosystems.

When payment activity occurs outside the institution’s own channels, opportunities for visibility, interaction, and value-add services become more limited. By keeping the payment journey inside the banking app, institutions retain greater control over how users interact with all payment experiences.

This can create opportunities to introduce additional financial services and contextual experiences around the transaction itself, including foreign exchange services, loyalty programs, travel-related offerings such as travel insurance, financing options, and other embedded financial products.

Consistent user experience across borders

One of the biggest challenges in cross-border payments is maintaining a familiar and intuitive experience for users when they enter a new market. Through RoamingPay, travelers in Brazil can continue using the apps they already rely on at home to make payments.

There is no need to download a separate app, create a local account, learn an unfamiliar payment flow, or even resort to using cash. Instead, the payment experience remains within the institution’s own interface, helping preserve continuity, trust, and usability for the end user.

Access to payment networks without rebuilding local infrastructure

One of the biggest advantages of RoamingPay is that it lets financial institutions

connect users to local payment networks like Pix without needing to replicate domestic payment infrastructure locally.

Because real-time payment systems are designed to be used domestically, direct connectivity involves significant technical, operational, and regulatory complexity. Building this infrastructure independently for each market can become difficult to maintain over time.

RoamingPay simplifies this process by acting as an interoperability layer between payment networks, allowing institutions to enable localized payment experiences through a more centralized integration model while transactions continue settling locally.

This allows financial institutions to focus more directly on the customer experience and product strategy while interoperability and local settlement infrastructure operate behind the scenes.

Expansion into additional real-time payment systems

With the global expansion of domestic real-time payments, financial institutions are increasingly evaluating how to support localized payment experiences across multiple markets simultaneously.

RoamingPay’s interoperability model was designed not only for Pix, but for connectivity between domestic payment ecosystems more broadly — without any additional integrations or contracts. This creates a foundation that can support expansion into additional local payment systems without requiring institutions to redesign the customer experience market by market.

Keeping your banking app at the center of cross-border payments

As real-time payment systems continue to reshape commerce around the world, institutions have an opportunity to play a larger role in how customers pay beyond their home markets.

In Brazil, that increasingly means connecting users to Pix. However, the strategic value extends beyond enabling access to a local payment method. By allowing customers to make payments through the banking apps they already use, financial institutions can maintain engagement, strengthen visibility into payment activity, and create new opportunities for monetization throughout the travel journey.

At the same time, offering localized payment experiences through interoperable infrastructure can reinforce an institution’s position as a digitally forward organization capable of combining technological innovation with the reliability and financial strength customers expect from their primary financial provider.

The institutions that successfully connect users to local payment ecosystems while maintaining ownership of the payment experience will be better positioned to strengthen relationships, drive engagement, and remain relevant in an increasingly interconnected payments landscape.

Want to explore how your institution can enable Pix payments in Brazil through RoamingPay? Speak with a specialist to learn more.

Frequently Asked Questions about Pix and RoamingPay