2025-07-08
Pix: The New Gold Standard for Fast Payment Systems
doi tbp
Authors
Labrys, Zetta (editors), Zetta (coordinator), Mariana Cunha e Melo (author)
Publisher
TBP
Summary
Discover 'Pix: The new gold standard for Fast Payment Systems,' a comprehensive study detailing Brazil's revolutionary digital payment system. Explore Pix's unprecedented economic impact on Brazil, driving massive financial inclusion and transforming market competition by becoming the most utilized payment method nationwide, surpassing even cash. This research provides an in-depth global comparative analysis of Fast Payment Systems (FPS) worldwide, highlighting Pix's groundbreaking performance in transaction volume per capita and value-to-GDP rates against systems like UPI, NPP, and PromptPay. Learn why Pix is deemed the 'new gold standard' for future global payment ecosystems, attributing its success to strong Central Bank leadership, a unique 'One Platform Approach,' and a generative architecture that enables payments anywhere, to anyone, for anything, at any time, in an instant - all the while showcasing robust security and sustaining an incredibly low fraud rate. This study offers key insights for jurisdictions aiming to replicate similar success in enhancing financial efficiency and innovation.
Key words
Pix, Fast Payment Systems, Financial Inclusion, Financial Technology, Payment Systems, Financial Systems
Key questions
How did Pix come to be in Brazil, how does it work, and what were its impacts on the Brazilian economy? This question is addressed in "Part I: Pix Deep Dive" of the study. It explores the origins of Pix, its functionality and architecture, and its significant economic effects. For instance, Pix transformed Brazil's economy, becoming the most utilized payment method in terms of both transaction numbers and value, surpassing cash. Its success is rooted in strategic decisions, including effective governance, open standards, and low activation costs. The study details how Pix fostered financial inclusion by reducing the unbanked population and increasing account diversification, especially in less developed regions. It also discusses benefits for small businesses, with 97% accepting Pix and 48% preferring it for payments, contributing to increased credit access and a decrease in the informal economy.
How do Fast Payment Systems (FPS) spread throughout the world, and how does Pix compare to other systems in terms of architecture, policy, user experience, use cases, and adoption? This question forms the basis for "Part II: Global Trend in Fast Payment Systems". The study provides selected case studies from various continents, including Mexico, Costa Rica, India, Thailand, South Korea, Sweden, Australia, Uganda, and Tanzania, analyzing each in terms of its architecture, policy, user experience, use cases, and adoption rates. Pix is highlighted as a "groundbreaking" FPS due to its high adoption rates, extensive use cases, and low costs, consistently outperforming or equaling other systems in key metrics like transactions per capita and percentage of GDP.
What is the future of FPS, what are Pix's key contributions to the global FPS debate and development, and how can other jurisdictions achieve similar results? This question is explored in "Part III: The Future of Fast Payment Systems and Pix as the New Gold Standard". The study posits Pix as a "new gold standard" for FPS, demonstrating the transformative impact of an alternative approach to payment systems. Key insights from Pix's journey for shaping the future of payment systems include the central bank's leadership in building and operating a centralized infrastructure, Pix's "One Platform Approach" encompassing diverse use cases, and its design as an innovative and extensible platform. The study also examines how Pix's principles of ubiquity and generativity set it apart, suggesting a model for other economies to enhance financial inclusion and efficiency.