If you’re not familiar with Pix, it’s an instant payment method that the Brazilian Central Bank (Bacen) developed in 2020.
It completely changed the payment landscape because of its confirmation and settlement time and because it is significantly less expensive than debit and credit cards for merchants.
Pix has been so successful that central banks in various countries are now joining efforts on a project called Nexus, aiming to enable instant fund transfers internationally, just as Pix does within Brazil.
In continuation of the Pix development roadmap, Bacen has announced that by the end of the year, we will see the launch of “Pix Automático,” which will allow for recurring payments. It was initially scheduled for April, but its complexity pushed the release to October.
Another much anticipated feature is “Pix Garantido,” which will enable payments in installments through Pix.
If you work in the payments industry, you probably know that in Brazil, especially for higher-priced products, installments is the preferred payment method.
My personal favorite upcoming feature is Pix as contactless payment option. Soon, we will be able to use Pix for NFC payments.
Although the functionality of contactless Pix payments is still unclear, this advancement will make Pix payments easier for those whose phones have the technology.
It’s important to note that even though Pix transactions are as instant as A2A transfers, there is a security risk since you must have your bank account open on your banking app to make a Pix payment and contactless Pix payments has the potential do eliminate the risk.
