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Brazil's Pix payment system faces pressure from Visa and Mastercard

elciudadano.com

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Re: Brazil's Pix payment system faces pressure from Visa and Mastercard

#21

Post by surgical_fire »

KK7NIL wrote: post #6
jacknews wrote: post #3

Every country should have this. Why would you let America take 2-3% of your transaction volumes? It perhaps made sense when the technology was difficult, and America was trusted, but ...

> Why would you let America take 2-3% of your transaction volumes? I don't think VISA/Mastercard takes such a fee? (They'd be some of the biggest companies in the world if they did.) The fees they charge are actually fractions of a percent, the rest are charged by the card issuer, which is usually your bank. You could, in theory, use the VISA network and not pay those fees to a card issuer.

Still greater than 0.

There's absolutely no reason for a country to outsource paynent infrastructure to US corporations.

Re: Brazil's Pix payment system faces pressure from Visa and Mastercard

#22

Post by cyberax »

mrkramer wrote: post #10
SirFatty wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"crypto and stablecoins will destroy them sooner or later." LOL!

I meant digital dollar and digital euro, you won't need Visa and Mastercard anymore.

Dollar is already "digital", and has been for the last 50 years or so.

Re: Brazil's Pix payment system faces pressure from Visa and Mastercard

#23

Post by mrkramer »

cyberax wrote: post #22
mrkramer wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I meant digital dollar and digital euro, you won't need Visa and Mastercard anymore.

Dollar is already "digital", and has been for the last 50 years or so.

I meant this https://www.federalreserve.gov/central-bank-digital-currency..., this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_euro and this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_renminbi

Re: Brazil's Pix payment system faces pressure from Visa and Mastercard

#24

Post by wslh »

mrkramer wrote: post #7

Pix is for domestic use right? So tourists who come to Brazil still use Visa and Mastercard as well as Brazilian tourists who travel abroad. Visa and Mastercard are companies of the past, crypto and stablecoins will destroy them sooner or later.

No, for example Argentinian tourists use Belo[1] for paying in Brazil. No need for credit cards.

[1] https://www.belo.app/en-us/ar/

Re: Brazil's Pix payment system faces pressure from Visa and Mastercard

#25

Post by jnettome »

How difficult is for USA administration learn good practices and initiatives and think into implementing those? And also, why Master and Visa haven’t came with a solution where they integrate with all of that and innovate?

This idea that all they do should be de facto standard for the whole world is so démodé.

Re: Brazil's Pix payment system faces pressure from Visa and Mastercard

#26

Post by expedition32 »

jacknews wrote: post #3

Every country should have this. Why would you let America take 2-3% of your transaction volumes? It perhaps made sense when the technology was difficult, and America was trusted, but ...

It made sense back in the 1970s when it was hard for an American to pay for a hotel room in Manilla.

But in 2026 data moves in a micro second from one continent to another.

Re: Brazil's Pix payment system faces pressure from Visa and Mastercard

#27

Post by shpx »

It's surprising that Visa and Mastercard are even private companies. I expected that the government would be in charge of money and not let a group of people impose a 1-3% tax on their population. In the US, credit cards account for "71% of nationwide retail sales dollars".

Governments aren't competent enough to do tech stuff well and they would never make something that works in a different country as well as credit cards do, but still.

Re: Brazil's Pix payment system faces pressure from Visa and Mastercard

#28

Post by varispeed »

ExpertAdvisor01 wrote: post #9
jacknews wrote: post #3

Every country should have this. Why would you let America take 2-3% of your transaction volumes? It perhaps made sense when the technology was difficult, and America was trusted, but ...

It's interesting that we live in 2026 and people still don't understand the fees of credit card processing. Visa charges only a Assessment fee the majority goes to Issuer Bank +PSP. E.g: Interchange fee (0.8-1.8%): Paid by acquirer to issuer (card-holding bank) Assessment fee (0.1-0.3%): Paid to card network (Visa, Mastercard) Acquirer margin (0.3-0.8%): Retained by merchant’s payment processor

All should be free. Imagine if government decided to impose 3% revenue tax, yet these companies get a free pass.

If these networks cannot run this for free, then they should be nationalised and tax payer should cover it. It will be cheaper (because it will become non-profit) for everyone and better.

Re: Brazil's Pix payment system faces pressure from Visa and Mastercard

#29

Post by protastus »

jnettome wrote: post #25

How difficult is for USA administration learn good practices and initiatives and think into implementing those? And also, why Master and Visa haven’t came with a solution where they integrate with all of that and innovate? This idea that all they do should be de facto standard for the whole world is so démodé.

My understanding is that FedNow could become something like Pix, but implementation is voluntary. In Brazil, the central bank required all retail banks of significance to implement Pix by a certain deadline.

Visa and Mastercard are very much against FedNow becoming widely used, as it would destroy their business.

Re: Brazil's Pix payment system faces pressure from Visa and Mastercard

#30

Post by protastus »

dbolgheroni wrote: post #15

People underestimate how difficult it was to transfer money before Pix, even between local banks. The process was hard to use, it could take days and the fees were huge, depending on your bank. Pix solved all these problems. What happens also is that many sellers provide discounts when using Pix, because you dodge the expensive fees charged not only by Visa and MasterCard, but the fees operators (banks, fintechs) cha…

I think we need to put this in context for folks who are not from Brazil.

Comparatively, a domestic bank wire in Brazil before Pix was already easier and faster than one in the US today. I don't recall the bank fees being bad either.

The issue is that bank wires were never designed for buying lunch at the food court. They're not instant and not user friendly to set up.

Pix is alien technology next to the stuff we have in the US.

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