While the U.S. is still scaling FedNow, Brazil has already turned PIX into a mass-market infrastructure for instant payments. Fast, low-cost, and universal, PIX processed over USD 5 trillion in 2024, quickly becoming Brazil’s most popular payment method.

What makes PIX unique is not just its adoption curve, but its public design. Unlike many instant payment systems that emerged from private initiatives or bank consortia, PIX was conceived, regulated, and operated by the Central Bank of Brazil. This centralized governance enabled rapid penetration across consumers, businesses, and government.

Key achievements include:

• Financial inclusion: Millions of previously unbanked Brazilians gained access to digital payments with just a smartphone.
• Lower costs: Free peer-to-peer transfers and reduced fees for businesses.
• Innovation at scale: Fintechs and startups built new products on top of PIX rails.

No wonder institutions like the IMF, World Bank, and BIS cite PIX as one of the most inclusive and scalable real-time payment infrastructures worldwide.

PIX vs. card networks

PIX has disrupted Brazil’s payment ecosystem in ways the U.S. market is now watching closely. Traditionally, card acquirers and POS machine providers (the Brazilian equivalents of Visa, Mastercard, and Square/Block’s merchant services) controlled merchant payments. PIX rewrote this equation by enabling direct account-to-account transfers, bypassing costly intermediaries.

Impacts included:

• Revenue erosion: Acquirers lost share of Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) revenues.
• Hybrid adoption: POS providers integrated PIX into their devices.
• Merchant migration: Small businesses increasingly relied on QR codes and mobile PIX payments.

For U.S. readers, this dynamic mirrors debates around whether FedNow or real-time payments could eventually challenge card networks’ dominance. Especially in low-value, everyday transactions.

Payments as Geopolitics: US–Brazil Trade Tensions

PIX’s rise has even entered the geopolitical arena. In July 2025, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) launched a Section 301 investigation into Brazil’s digital trade policies, citing PIX as a potential state-backed advantage that could disadvantage American firms. The move came amid broader trade disputes, with tariffs against Brazilian exports on the table.

Brazil defended PIX as a neutral, open system accessible to any company, domestic or foreign. Still, the case highlighted how instant payment systems are no longer just financial infrastructure; they are becoming strategic assets, shaping debates on digital sovereignty, fair trade, and economic power.

For U.S. policymakers, instant payments are not only about efficiency; they are about influence and competitiveness in the global digital economy.

From payment rail to financial operating system

PIX continues to evolve beyond basic payments, becoming a platform for embedded financial services:

• PIX Automatic (2025): Enables recurring payments (subscriptions, tuition, utilities) with a single consent, similar to ACH debit, but real-time and mobile-first. Early projections estimate that USD 30 billion in e-commerce transactions will occur within two years.
• PIX Installments (Fall 2025): Allows consumers to split payments at checkout while merchants receive funds upfront. A native BNPL model, it could reshape credit access much like Affirm or Klarna in the U.S., but thoroughly embedded in the central bank’s infrastructure.
• PIX Collateral (2026): Let’s businesses use future PIX receivables as collateral for loans, democratizing access to working capital for small and medium-sized enterprises.

These innovations demonstrate how PIX is transitioning from a rail to an operating system for financial services, raising the question: Could FedNow follow a similar path?

Global benchmarking: UPI, FedNow, Wero, and Beyond

Brazil is not alone. Other economies are building instant payment systems, but their trajectories vary:

• United States – FedNow: Launched in 2023, FedNow has grown to 1,400+ financial institutions by mid-2025. Yet adoption remains gradual, constrained by the U.S.’s entrenched card culture and fragmented banking system. Compared to PIX’s mass adoption, FedNow’s retail penetration is still limited.
• India – UPI: Launched in 2016, now dominates Indian digital payments with nearly 185 billion transactions in 2024–2025, representing ~50% of global real-time payments volume. Its partnerships with PayPal and cross-border integration make it a global leader.
• Europe – Wero (EPI): Aiming for digital sovereignty, but still in early rollout stages.
• Southeast Asia – Project Nexus: Building cross-border interoperability across ASEAN, echoing what a future “PIX Global” could look like.

PIX as a tool for inclusion and innovation

For Brazil, PIX has been transformational:

• 34 million unbanked citizens gained access to digital finance.
• Micro-entrepreneurs bypassed costly POS terminals.
• Governments began accepting PIX for taxes and fees.
• Fintechs created new credit and reconciliation solutions on top of PIX APIs.

The future of PIX global and lessons for the U.S.

The global race toward instant payments is no longer about if, but how. The key challenges ahead include:

• Cross-border interoperability: Linking PIX, FedNow, UPI, and TIPS into a seamless global network.
• Public vs. private governance: Balancing state-led infrastructure with private-sector innovation.
• Security and fraud prevention: As digital crime evolves, so must authentication and monitoring systems.
• Inclusive growth: Ensuring digital rails don’t leave behind populations without whole internet or mobile access.

Brazil as a standard-setter and why we should pay attention

PIX proves that public policy plus platform engineering can redefine cost, speed, and access in financial systems. Its rise has forced traditional intermediaries to adapt, influenced U.S.–Brazil trade disputes, and inspired other nations to rethink their payment architectures.

For the United States, the PIX story offers two lessons:

1. Mass adoption requires bold design choices: something FedNow must address if it hopes to rival cards in everyday payments.
2. Instant payments are not just infrastructure: they are strategic levers for competitiveness, innovation, and even diplomacy.

At Luby, we partner with financial institutions and fintechs across the Americas to turn this potential into impact, helping organizations accelerate digital strategies with secure, scalable, and innovative payment solutions.

Beyond theory, we’ve already proven this expertise in practice. Together with Online IPS, we developed an international PIX payment gateway designed to extend Brazil’s innovation beyond its borders. By combining deep knowledge of financial systems with scalable architecture and robust APIs, our teams enabled seamless PIX transactions for businesses outside Brazil. This case demonstrates how PIX-inspired infrastructure can be successfully adapted for the U.S. market, reinforcing Luby’s role as a trusted partner in accelerating the evolution of payment ecosystems worldwide.