Today, June 16th, automatic Pix comes into effect in Brazil, another mode in the payment methods journey that promises to expand access to services, reduce operational costs for companies and consumers, and generate greater user engagement due to the simplicity of the system in registering.
According to Sensedia – a trusted consultancy for the initial Open Finance framework with the Central Bank of Brazil and one of the participants in the pilot project for the automatic Pix implementation, in testing since April of this year – unlike traditional automatic debit, which depends on contracts between utilities and specific banks, the new solution allows any company with a CNPJ registered in Open Finance as a payment initiator to offer this functionality.
With this, streaming companies, e-commerce, marketplaces, education, and digital services, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Uber, Shopee, Shein, TikTok, Monday.com, Spotify, among others, will be able to adopt the new feature — either directly as participants in Open Finance or through the hiring of authorized Payment Initiation Service Providers (PISPs).
"It is worth emphasizing, however, that on June 16th, automatic Pix enrollment will only become mandatory for financial institutions regulated by the Central Bank of Brazil that are already participating in Open Finance. In the case of the other essential link for this system to function, which are service companies and payment initiators, enrollment remains optional but crucial to enable the user experience in the services," explains Rafael Isquierdo, Open Finance specialist and Group Product Manager at Sensedia.
Since every part of this process is done via APIs (application programming interfaces, in literal translation), service companies that do not participate in Open Finance can use APIs from participating institutions to offer automatic Pix.
"With automatic Pix, the user does not need to go to the bank in person to register their debit account or wait for the bank to have an agreement with registered companies. Consent for recurring payments is given directly on the service provider's website or app during the purchase process. After authorizing the transaction in the banking app, the payment is automatically made periodically," emphasizes Gabriela Santana, Product Manager at Sensedia.
According to Sensedia experts, in addition to improving the user journey, another major advantage of automatic Pix is financial inclusion. This is because those who do not have a credit card, for example, can split payments into installments or schedule monthly payments through automatic Pix.
By eliminating fees for card machines, brands, and issuing banks, common in the case of credit cards, and the costs for issuing a boleto – which today averages R$ 0.68, plus operational costs – automatic Pix also helps maximize profit margins, potentially resulting in more competitive prices for consumers. Additionally, since automatic debit was previously only available through the largest banking institutions, with automatic Pix, small and digital banks will also be able to participate in this ecosystem, expanding the range of services and products, intensifying competition, and improving the quality of offers and deliveries made to the population, emphasizes Gabriela.
