Pix

Banco Central do Brasil launched Pix in November 2020 and made participation mandatory for larger banks. The payee is identified by a key, a chave, which can be a taxpayer number (CPF), phone number, email address or random string. Alternatively the payer scans a QR code. Money arrives in seconds, around the clock, and individuals pay nothing.

That last part mattered in a country where much of the population had no credit card and bank transfers were expensive. Within a couple of years most adults were using it, street vendors included. The success has not gone unnoticed: in 2025 Pix was named in a US trade investigation, in effect for taking market share from American card networks.