2023-Public-Sector-Perspectives

3. Pix is free to use for consumers and individual entrepreneurs (corporates pay a fee negotiated directly with their service providers). As these new bank customers began to use their accounts, they therefore gravitated towards Pix rather than more traditional forms of payment such as Real Time Gross Settlement and Automated Clearing House, which incur charges. 4. Pix is extremely easy to use. Once an individual has a bank account, they can make a payment to anyone with just a Pix key, which can be a phone number, taxpayer identification number, email address or a QR code — no account details are required. Seconds later, the payment is received into the recipient’s account 24/7, 365 days a year. This simplicity ensured Pix’s early P2P growth in contrast to instant payment systems which initially focused on eCommerce. Ubiquity drives new use cases Pix’s ease of use was key to its initial P2P growth and its QR code functionality has been pivotal to its subsequent rapid adoption by merchants and businesses. With QR codes, users can just point their smartphone at a code and transact immediately within their own banking app; no proprietary apps or portals are necessary. This simplicity — combined with the ubiquity of Pix use among consumers — has fueled Pix’s second wave of growth for online and in-store P2B payments. In designing Pix, BCB primarily set out to create an easy-to-use low-cost alternative to cash, which in 2019 was used for 77% of retail transactions. 1 This goal is well on the way to being achieved. Now, as adoption and use cases have broadened, Pix has also started to displace debit card use. It is possible that in the future, as new features are added to Pix, it will make inroads to the use of boleto and credit cards. Of course, the ubiquity, convenience and low costs associated with Pix that have encouraged merchants and businesses to adopt the new payment format, are also attractive for government and public sector entities. Unlike instant payment schemes in many other countries, Pix have no transaction value caps imposed by BCB, although individual banks have imposed caps for certain payment use cases and time periods in order to reduce the risk of fraud. A flexible transaction size makes Pix even more attractive for corporates and public sector entities as it means Pix can be used as a payment instrument for all invoices and bills. 1 https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/news-insights/insight/pix-rapid-development-instant-payments-brazil# 40 Governments Leading Digital Transformation: Instant Payments in Brazil