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

Post by hocuspocus » Fri, May 08, 2026, 2:28 PM UTC

Pooge wrote: post #207

ptman wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SEPA instant already exists. I think it guarantees sub-10s transactions. Unfortunately it is not the default.

SEPA is only for Euros but there are countries that don't use Euros that still use IBAN (e.g. Switzerland and UK).

Post by jangxx » Fri, May 08, 2026, 2:33 PM UTC

bilekas wrote: post #203

WinstonSmith84 wrote: post #152

I can see that Visa and Mastercard are freaking out, not because Pix can take over their business model, but because it can give ideas to other countries doing the same. I've spent three months earlier this year in Brazil and never used Pix once. Not because I didn't want, but because I couldn't, or let's be honest: my time was not worth the hassle. To be able to pay with Pix, one needs to get a CPF (Brazilian Tax ID…

> Pix is a good local idea, but the world needs something better. There is no problem to continue using maybe Visa/Mastercard when dealing abroad or external, but when you are a normal citizen, it's far better to use Pix in this case, you are supporting a national company, paying fee's to them and not at the whims of an external countries policies. Edit: They also tend to be non profits ironically enough. In Ireland…

Post by reese_john » Fri, May 08, 2026, 3:00 PM UTC

gaigalas wrote: post #257

reese_john wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a minor technicality, if private banks are down then the SPI is basically useless. Banks can send money to each other but clients can’t see it. > What went down were apps Plus, this is an oversimplification. Transaction authorization, Fraud/AML screening, account validation are not just part of an “app”, they are core functionality of private banks operations, and they are made scalable by big cloud providers…

> The true scaling burden is on private banks not the BCB Exactly. That is one of the aspects that allow for the system to be sovereign and scalable. Banco Central controls the core, and that's all it needs to. This is good design. Descentralized, modern, resilient and efficient.

Post by Qem » Fri, May 08, 2026, 3:16 PM UTC

shpx wrote: post #27

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…

Post by Qem » Fri, May 08, 2026, 3:19 PM UTC

rbanffy wrote: post #43

shpx wrote: post #27

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…

> a group of people impose a 1-3% tax on their population. It seems the consensus is that a taxes are only bad if you have to pay the government. If it's a small set of companies that collectively own a virtual monopoly, it's because they earned it.