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

Post by noelwelsh » Fri, May 08, 2026, 12:42 PM UTC

Antirust3743 wrote: post #204

vitorbaptistaa wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To be able to pay with Pix, one needs to get a CPF (Brazilian Tax ID). It's not ideal, but you can use Wise to pay using Pix and India's UPI. You simply transfer the money from your local bank account to Wise and they transfer to whatever Pix you tell. It's almost instant. Meanwhile, there are talks about integrating these systems. This is the obvious long-term game, a clear threat to Visa and MasterCard. Right now…

Wise remains one of the worst professional support experiences I've ever had at my company and would highly advise people not to use them.

Post by pimeys » Fri, May 08, 2026, 12:43 PM UTC

Pooge wrote: post #104

raron wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wero is just another private company trying get their cut of payment fees. You can do the same thing with SEPA Instant Payment (or some member states outside of the Eurozone have their own similar thing). I don't see why Wero should exists, their business model seems like "trying to get money for the same service you can get for free".

I couldn't have said it better. I don't understand what they solve. We need instant, free SEPA transfers around the clock. Switzerland is not part of SEPA but IBAN is used so it is trivial to send payments to foreign accounts that have an IBAN. I always say that the day Trump decides to block Visa/MasterCard outside the US is the day we get instant payments and finally get rid of cards.

Post by rescbr » Fri, May 08, 2026, 12:48 PM UTC

spwa4 wrote: post #218

cess11 wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"we are going to go back to how people used to travel 50 years ago: with a lot of USD bank notes hidden in your hotel room or elsewhere ..." Who did that? Most people except for criminals and refugees used traveller's cheques: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveller%27s_cheque I think some banks, like AmEx, still issue them.

People did that? I took one look at the fees and ... "no thank you", and took cash.

Post by Pooge » Fri, May 08, 2026, 12:52 PM UTC

pimeys wrote: post #223

Pooge wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't have said it better. I don't understand what they solve. We need instant, free SEPA transfers around the clock. Switzerland is not part of SEPA but IBAN is used so it is trivial to send payments to foreign accounts that have an IBAN. I always say that the day Trump decides to block Visa/MasterCard outside the US is the day we get instant payments and finally get rid of cards.

In Germany we have free instant SEPA transfers. What Wero solves is that you can send money without giving your IBAN number, which at least in Germany can be used to take money from your account. So you get standardized payment system where you scan a QR code or NFC tag with your bank app and the payment goes through IBAN and the system shows an approval of payment. It still uses the same systems under the surface.

Post by thefossguy69 » Fri, May 08, 2026, 12:56 PM UTC

pkphilip wrote: post #98

India's UPI is also extremely quick and easy to use - instant transfers with just the person's phone number or via a QR code or via a UPI id which looks like an email id. We are talking about 19-20 billion transactions per month. Apart from UPI, there are other interbank transfers methods such as NEFT, IMPS, RTGS etc. All quite convenient and easy to use.