Learn how these new Pix categories might help you offer a better shopping experience.
Yes, the Pix family is growing. Brazil’s favorite payment method is quickly adapting to the daily needs of Brazilians and Open Finance is helping to introduce new solutions that enhance the overall payment experience.
But what does Open Finance have to do with this?
Imagine a city where each neighborhood is surrounded by high walls. Each area has its own stores and services, but they can’t see or interact with the other neighborhoods. This isolation makes it hard for anyone to understand what people are doing in other areas, preventing anyone from seeing the full picture.
Now, imagine that gates were placed within these walls. A store in one neighborhood can get a key to these gates and visit other neighborhoods to see what people are doing there. What do they eat, drink, how do they live. This new openness leads to comparison, imitation and innovation. Merchants now have a complete view of what customers may prefer. They can offer better, more personalized services.
This is pretty much how Open Finance works. Like those gates. According to Banco Central, the open financial system allows customers of financial products and services to share their information securely, quickly, and conveniently among different institutions authorized by the Central Bank. It also enables access to bank accounts from various platforms, not just the bank’s app or website. Of course, all of this happens after each customer’s permission – that can be revoked at any time.
How is Open Finance good for economy?
The idea of Open Finance is to create a more connected and efficient financial ecosystem where customers can benefit from better services and products. With Open Finance, further innovations are on the horizon. This connectivity allows fintechs like PagBrasil to provide better, faster, and more personalized financial services, ultimately benefiting both businesses and consumers.
Now, let’s check out some exciting new Pix features that will impact the fast-changing payment landscape in Brazil.
A new era for Pix
The Brazilian Central Bank published on August 2nd two specific regulations focused on No-Redirect Payment Journey. We are talking about payment processes that users can complete transactions without being redirected to the funds source’s website or application. This is essential for the functioning of Pix new features, such as Contactless Pix. The regulation of Open Finance sets the rules of the game for financial institutions to participate in this new system.
These new rules are going to stimulate innovations within the Pix system. As part of the Central Bank’s agenda, several new Pix technologies are planned to be launched: Contactless Pix, Pix Garantido, and Recurring Pix. Let’s see how each of them works.
Contactless Pix
First, let’s take a quick look at how things work today, both online and in physical stores: if you’re making an online purchase with Pix, you have to leave the website, open your bank app, and complete the payment by copying and pasting the code, giving the provided key, or scanning a QR code.
In a physical store, you also need to open your bank app, scan the QR code, or enter the store’s Pix key to finish your purchase.
However, Contactless Pix will let you finish the payment process right on the online platform without ever leaving the page. This is how it is going to work: first, the user grants permission for their bank account to be used for direct payments. This consent can be linked to the bank app or a digital wallet, like Google Pay, Apple Pay or Samsung Pay.
Once the syncing is complete, the user can make contactless payments in physical stores, by bringing their device (such as a smartphone or smartwatch) close to a payment terminal, or online by simply authenticating with their digital wallet. Testing will begin in November 2024. The service will be available to the public in February next year.
Pix Garantido (Guaranteed Pix)
In Brazil, people are used to making installment payments with their credit cards. They can split a single purchase into smaller monthly payments, a practice that is part of the Brazilian payment culture. The Central Bank is planning to launch Pix Garantido, a feature that will take this consumer behavior to the Pix System. The new feature will enable customers to make installment payments for their purchases using Pix. This modality could be an alternative to credit card installments. However, unlike credit cards, which are limited to those who have them, “Guaranteed Pix” will be accessible to all Brazilian adults who use Pix.
Recurring Pix
Scheduled for launch on June 16th, 2025, Recurring Pix, as the name says, will allow recurring payments to me made. This is going to be useful for recurring purchases of goods, utilities, subscription services, phone bills, internet, health plans, school fees, and more. This feature will allow users to schedule payments automatically, providing convenience and ensuring timely transactions. Users can authorize these payments through their bank’s app, eliminating the need for manual authentication for each transaction. For merchants, Recurring Pix promises to increase payment efficiency, reduce delinquency rates, and lower operational costs associated with credit card fees.
A New Brazilian Payment Ecosystem
The introduction of these new Pix modalities will solidify Pix in the Brazilian payment landscape. These innovations also reflect the growing preference for Pix in Brazil. In 2023, Brazilians made nearly 42 billion transactions via Pix, representing a 75% increase compared to the previous year, according to the Brazilian Federation of Banks (Febraban).
This makes Pix the most popular payment method in Brazil. In fact, the number of Pix transactions surpassed all combined transactions made with credit and debit cards, boleto, TED, DOC, checks, and TEC, which totaled almost 39.4 billion operations.
Sources:
Banco Central do Brasil
https://www.bcb.gov.br/detalhenoticia/20227/nota
https://www.bcb.gov.br/estabilidadefinanceira/openfinance
Agência Brasil
