Brazil’s Pix Outsells Credit And Debit Cards Combined

More transactions were done using Pix’s immediate payments platform in the first quarter than were made using credit and debit cards combined, continuing the Brazilian company’s meteoric rise.

Account-to-account payment method PIX, introduced by the Central Bank of Brazil in late 2020, had transactions for Q1 reach 8.1 billion, as opposed to 4.2 billion for credit cards and 3.8 billion for debit cards.

Pix accounted for 35% of all transactions in Q1, up from 23% a year earlier, according to data from the central bank examined by vendor Matera. Credit card transactions, on the other hand, made up 18% of the total, down from 20% the year before. Transactions using debit cards made about 16% of the total, down from 20%.

Nearly 30% of the platform’s transactions now take place using QR codes, which is proving to be a crucial component of the Pix success story.

Credit cards are on the verge of extinction, according to central bank director Roberto Campos Neto, who stated this last year that the rise in account-to-account based open payments is to blame.

In addition, Matera contends that Pix poses a direct threat to credit cards and can serve as a model for the US market, which has recently welcomed the FedNow payments system.

“With FedNow and RTP, US financial institutions have a real opportunity to innovate on top of these new payment rails to give consumers and businesses better payment options,” says Carlos Netto, CEO, Matera. “Pix shows how intuitive payments can be. It poses the greatest threat yet to credit card dominance.”