How the Central Bank of Brazil built Pix, powering 6 billion monthly transactions
Lex chats with Harish Natarajan - Practice Manager, Financial Inclusion and Infrastructure, Finance, Competitiveness & Innovation at the World Bank, and Carlos Brandt - The Senior Advisor for Pix at the Central Bank of Brazil. Together they discuss the remarkable success of Pix, Brazil's real-time payment system, which now sees over 6 billion transactions per month and is used by more than 90% of the adult population and 80% of companies. Lex explores how Pix was created by the Central Bank of Brazil with strong public-private collaboration, backed by regulatory authority and supported by a co-creation model with stakeholders. Key to its adoption were a low-cost centralized infrastructure, clear branding, mandatory participation by large banks, and a robust national communication strategy. Globally, Pix is seen as a leading example of fast payment system deployment, driven by the central bank acting as a neutral coordinator and scheme owner. Lex also examines the technical architecture, built in-house by a surprisingly small team of 55–65 people, and how scalable infrastructure and extensibility have enabled rapid growth and innovation. NOTABLE DISCUSSION POINTS: 1. Pix achieved mass adoption through public-private co-creation and legal mandate: Pix now processes over 6 billion transactions per month, with 90% of Brazil’s adult population and 80% of businesses actively using it. Its success stems from a strategic legal mandate in 2013 granting the Central Bank regulatory and operational authority over retail payments. The Central Bank then led a co-creation process involving both public and private stakeholders through the Pix Forum, fostering alignment, inclusivity, and strong network effects. 2. A lean but powerful team built a nation-scale real-time payments system: The Pix infrastructure was built entirely in-house by a relatively small team, 30-40 people for the technical infrastructure layer and around 25 for the payment scheme layer. It operates 24/7 with real-time settlement and uses centralized infrastructure separate from Brazil’s traditional large-value payment rails. This centralized, purpose-built architecture dramatically lowered costs and enabled rapid rollout. 3. Strategic communication and mandated participation drove adoption at scale: The Central Bank led a national communication campaign to build trust, establish a strong brand identity, and educate the public. Simultaneously, it mandated major banks (with over 500,000 active accounts) to join Pix, triggering widespread voluntary adoption from smaller PSPs. The rollout included a restricted pilot phase and emphasized user-friendly features like QR codes and aliases to boost convenience and usage from day one. TOPICS Pix, Central Bank of Brazil, World Bank, Visa, Citibank, M-Pesa, Alipay, SPI, fintech, payments, PSP, API, Fast Payments, Payments Infrastructure, PayTech ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT 🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2 🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV 👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin TIMESTAMPS 1’19: Building Pix from the Ground Up: Carlos Brandt on Modernizing Brazil’s Payment Infrastructure 3’03: Fast Payments for Financial Inclusion: Harish Natarajan on the World Bank’s Role in Modern Payment Infrastructure 4’29: From Cash to 5 Billion Transactions a Month: How Pix Transformed Brazil’s Payment Ecosystem Through Public-Private Collaboration 10’41: Why Pix Succeeded Where Others Struggled: The Power of Neutral Coordination and Public-Private Synergy 12’40: Inside the Pix Forum: How Brazil Built a Collaborative Process for Payment Innovation 15’07: Fast Payments at Scale: Market Coordination, Infrastructure, and Global Lessons from Pix 20’55: Engineering Pix: How a Small Team Built Brazil’s 24/7 National Payments Infrastructure from Scratch 27’28: Driving Nationwide Adoption: How Strategic Communication and Mandates Powered Pix’s Rollout Across Brazil 34’14: Scaling for Success: Why Communication, Extensibility, and API Design Are Key to Evolving Payment Systems 37’23: Building Trust Through Cooperation: How Regulators Can Foster Innovation While Balancing Public and Private Interests 40’06: The channels used to connect with Carlos & learn more about The Central Bank of Brazil. 40’39: The channels used to connect with Harish & learn more about The World Bank