Brazil’s Central Bank Head Says Pix Instant Payments Will Replace Credit Cards
The chief of Brazil’s central bank believes the country’s open finance system will soon lead to the end of the use of credit cards.
Speaking at a cryptocurrency event, Roberto Campos Neto said Friday (Aug. 12) that through open finance, which Brazil’s central bank has been implementing since 2021, users will control all aspects of their financial life in one place on their mobile phone, according to a report from Reuters.
This, in turn, will lead to the development of products that will enable people to choose to make payments with Pix — an instant payment system launched in Brazil in 2020 — or debit or credit, per the report, which added that Pix is already used more often than credit and debit cards in the country.
“This system eliminates the need to have a credit card,” Campos Neto said, according to the report. “I think that credit cards will cease to exist at some point soon.”
Pix is the centerpiece of Brazil’s digital payments ecosystem, asserting its dominance just a year after its introduction, PYMNTS reported in April.
Read more: RecargaPay on How Pix Propelled Brazil Into the Global Digital Payments Spotlight
The system changed the way payments are conducted in the country, shifting a mixed cash and credit card economy to one centered around digital payments, Rodrigo Teijeiro, founder and CEO of Brazilian FinTech RecargaPay told PYMNTS at the time.
“What has happened in Brazil recently has been just an explosion of innovation and disruption of the credit card stack, thanks to the development of Pix,” Teijeiro said.
Similarly, Luis Silva, founder and CEO of payment network provider CloudWalk, told PYMNTS in a report posted in June that Brazil is becoming a leader in digital payments adoption in Latin America, and consumers in the country have high expectations when it comes to these payments.
See also: CloudWalk On Meeting Latin America’s Growing Demand For Digital Payments
“Now banks are issuing contactless cards, and the central bank launched Pix, the Brazilian instant payment network, with huge success,” Silva said. “So basically, contactless payments and Pix are the favorite payment methods here, because they are cheap and fast.”