Recent data from the Central Bank shows that in the first half of 2024, the Pix payment method had over 28 billion transactions, equivalent to more than R$ 11 trillion transacted. These figures reinforce how essential the platform has become in the country, making life easier for users – who no longer pay fees to transfer money – as well as for merchants, who have lower charges than card machines, for example.
Nathan Marion, general manager of Yuno, a global payments orchestrator, points out that the reason for the platform's great success goes beyond savings on bank fees. "Pix is a very practical method that allows you to make a transaction with just a few clicks directly from your phone. The money is instantly deposited into the beneficiary's account, without the need to wait several business days as in other methods. For these reasons, its use is encouraged by merchants, who offer special prices to those who choose this method," he points out.
So much so that a recent Cielo survey showed that in e-commerce, Pix has already surpassed credit cards as users' favorite method, being the most used by about 67% of people. "The same study shows that while 92% of retailers see an increase in Pix usage, cash is losing traction, with 80% of merchants saying its use has decreased significantly," notes Nathan Marion.
For the executive, the trend is that Pix will become increasingly stronger in the country, which has been one of the global leaders in the use of A2A (account-to-account) methods. "In addition to data from the Central Bank and Cielo, the study The Global Payment Report by Worldpay showed that the modality has the capacity to reach half of the transaction value at POS terminals in Brazil by 2027," he explains.
To exemplify the reason for this propensity, Marion talks about new Pix modalities, which are also willing to dominate the installment purchase market. In addition to the standard transfer, which is already successful, there is Pix Garantido, which can capture part of the market currently dominated by credit cards, since a study by Serasa Experian indicates that 71% of consumers tend to parcel their purchases whenever possible. This new service, besides being advantageous for those who do not have a credit limit at the bank, can also help avoid expenses with annual fees.
The recurring purchase market, such as subscription and streaming services, can also be included in Pix. This is because the launch of Automatic Pix is scheduled for the end of this year, a mode that allows scheduling various bills through the platform. Data from a Fiserv study already shows us that Generation Z is willing to abandon credit cards for bill payments such as electricity and water (32%), or for recurring subscription transactions (19%). Automatic Pix can reach these people, stimulating the economy across different sectors, as more services will be paid through the platform, such as scheduling gas and electricity bills, as well as other purposes like school fees and even consortium installments, points out Nathan Marion.
In this way, the tool also helps more people become part of the national financial system, as its ease of use and versatility encompass even those individuals with little familiarity with banking services. According to the Central Bank, Pix contributed to the financial inclusion of over 71 million Brazilians, with the states having fewer physical bank branches being the ones that use the platform the most, explains the executive.
With about three years of existence, Pix recently reached its record number of transactions, totaling 224 million transactions in a single day. In 2023, it was the most popular payment method in Brazil, with nearly 43 billion transactions, a 75% increase compared to the previous year, according to data from the Brazilian Federation of Banks (Febraban). "With such a strong market penetration in Brazil and ease of use, we can affirm that these numbers tend to increase more and more, making Pix the Brazilian's favorite option for any transaction," concludes Marion.
