Pix at five years: how Brazil built one of the world’s most advanced public payments infrastructures - and why other countries are paying attention

São Paulo, Brazil - 3rd February 2026: A new report released today by financial innovation consultancy W Fintechs examines how Brazil’s Pix became one of the world’s most advanced public payments infrastructures, and why its design is now shaping global debate on the future of payments.

‘A New Planet Called Pix’, published five years after the system’s launch, analyses how Brazil treated payments as public digital infrastructure rather than a proprietary product, producing scale, inclusion, and interoperability at a national level.

Why Pix matters now

As governments and central banks across Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa debate how to modernize payments systems, the report positions Brazil as a rare, large-scale example of institutional design in practice. The Pix example demonstrates how governance, standards, and access rules, not just speed, determine whether real-time payments can scale across an entire economy.

Launched in 2020 and operated by the Central Bank of Brazil, Pix was designed from the outset as an open, interoperable infrastructure, governed by common rules, standardized APIs, and equal access for banks, fintechs, merchants, governments, and new entrants. This institutional design, combining public governance with market competition, is central to Pix’s rapid scaling and ongoing expansion of its use cases.

Pix by the numbers

Pix processes more than 6 to 7 billion transactions per month and moves over BRL 3 trillion (approximately USD 557 billion) in value every month, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In 2025 alone, Pix moves approximately BRL 1.7 trillion per week (around USD 316 billion). If Pix were a country, its monthly payment flows would exceed the GDP of economies such as Argentina or Chile. With more than 178 million users, Pix reaches around 91% of Brazil’s adult population, a level of penetration rarely achieved by financial products globally in such a short time.

Within months of launch, Pix surpassed the combined transaction volume of TED, DOC, boletos, and checks, marking a rapid shift in everyday payment behavior. By 2024, the system reached 63 billion transactions, up from 9.4 billion in 2021, reflecting not just growth but widespread behavioral adoption. In practical terms, Pix processes payments in seconds, operates continuously, and has become the preferred method for routine transactions across individuals, businesses, and the public sector.

From payment method to public infrastructure

More than a fast-growing system, Pix represents a structural replacement of Brazil’s legacy payment rails. In terms of transaction count, Pix operates at a scale unmatched by traditional instruments. While Pix handles billions of transactions monthly, bank boletos fluctuate around 340 million transactions per month, TED transfers remain close to 65 million, and checks have become largely residual, falling below 10 million transactions per month. This gap illustrates how Pix has consolidated itself as the default rail for frequency, immediacy, and convenience.

In transaction value, legacy instruments still retain specific niches. TED continues to play a role in large corporate payments, moving between BRL 3.3 trillion and BRL 3.9 trillion per month, but Pix is rapidly closing this gap. With year over year growth close to 38% in transaction value, Pix already moves volumes comparable to the largest legacy rails. Meanwhile, boletos remain stable at around BRL 530 billion per month, and checks no longer exceed BRL 40 billion. Together, these trends point to a structural migration rather than simple coexistence, as Pix increasingly absorbs not only low-value transactions but also higher-ticket payment flows.

Unlike many instant payment initiatives, Pix was never designed as a standalone product or a narrow rail for peer-to-peer transfers. It was conceived as a living platform, capable of evolving over time. Today, Pix supports person-to-person, business-to-consumer, business-to-business, and government payments, recurring billing, payment initiation via Open Finance, and emerging credit and financing models embedded directly into payment flows.

When compared to other global systems, Pix stands out not only in scale but in structure— particularly at a moment when many countries are reassessing the role of the state in payments infrastructure. India’s UPI leads in absolute transaction volume, but Pix combines massive adoption with a hybrid governance model that balances public control and private innovation. In contrast, systems such as CoDi in Mexico have struggled with retail adoption, while many African markets operate fragmented mobile money ecosystems without a single interoperable public layer. Pix demonstrates how a unified infrastructure can coexist with competition, innovation, and low costs.

According to Walter Pereira, founder of W Fintechs and author of the report, Pix’s success is not primarily about speed. “The real breakthrough of Pix lies in how it was designed. When payments are treated as public infrastructure, with clear governance and open standards, innovation, scale, and competition can coexist. That is the lesson other markets are now paying attention to.”

The report also explores the convergence between Pix and Open Finance, the regulatory evolution led by the Central Bank of Brazil, the growing challenges around fraud and system resilience, and the next phase of Pix’s roadmap, including Automatic Pix, Pix Instalments, Pix by Tap, and the use of Pix as a foundation for credit and guarantees.

“Daniel Ruhman, CEO and co-founder of regulatory proxy Cumbuca, added: “Pix has transformed payments, not just in Brazil, but globally, and is now seen as a blueprint for what is possible. But as this report highlights, its success has also driven international awareness of Brazil’s position as a powerhouse for financial services innovation, and the significant local expertise that has developed as a result. We’re now seeing both policymakers and private sector organisations actively investigating how they can learn from Pix and Brazil’s approach to Open Finance. The first five years of Pix have driven immense success and laid the groundwork for a new era of financial services innovation both in Brazil and globally.”

The English edition of “A New Planet Called Pix” aims to broaden the international debate on payments, offering concrete lessons for countries considering or implementing instant payment systems, including the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia, and emerging markets. Rather than focusing solely on instant settlement, the report highlights how institutional design, governance, and long-term vision shape the resilience and inclusiveness of public financial infrastructure.

The report is available for download from February 3 at https://www.wfintechs.com/pix-en.