EloBrazil's third-largest scheme after Visa and Mastercard, and the only domestic scheme of any scale in South America. It carries social program cards and a large share of Caixa's card base. International acceptance is limited (agreements with Discover and Diners). An online merchant that does not enable Elo cuts off a meaningful slice of Brazilian shoppers.Elo Serviços S.A. (joint venture of Banco do Brasil, Bradesco, Caixa Econômica Federal) · since 20118.7% of cards issued in Brazil in Q1 2025 (Banco Central do Brasil); R$335 billion in transactions in 2024, or more than 8% of national card volume (trade press, 2025)
Global registry · Latin America · South America
Brazil Payment systems
22 systems listed.
CurrencyBrazilian real (BRL)
Domestic schemeElo
RegulatorBCB (Banco Central do Brasil)
Leading payment methods
PixCards (parcelado credit)WalletsBoleto
E-commerce shares
Cards · 42%Account-to-account · 40%Wallets · 9%Other · 5%Buy now, pay later · 2%Cash · 2%
Pix. Instant payments free for individuals, launched by the central bank in November 2020: nearly 80 billion transactions in 2025 (about R$35.4 trillion) and more than 170 million users. Pix has overtaken both cards and cash, and keeps adding features (Pix parcelado, Pix automático, Pix by NFC).
Pix transactions≈80B (2025, BCB)
Pix users>170M (≈8 in 10 adults)
Pix value≈R$35.4T (2025)
The fastest A2A revolution in the world. Credit cards are holding on thanks to parcelado (10 to 12 interest-free installments, a deeply rooted habit). The boleto bancário, a payment slip that can be paid in cash, is in decline.
IBAN · Brazil
29 characters410 BIC codes
- Total length
- 29 characters
- Bank code position
- 5–12
- Branch code position
- 13–17
- BBAN structure
8!n5!n10!n1!a1!c
Structurally valid example
BRcountry code97check digits00360305bank00001branch0009795493P1account
BR97 0036 0305 0000 1000 9795 493P 1
Learn about this market. The guides and courses that cover it.
Payments in BrazilPayments in the Caribbean and Central AmericaPayments in Argentina, Chile, and UruguayPayments in Mexico and the AndesPayments in Peru, Bolivia, and EcuadorPayment success rates and what drives themAccepting payments in BrazilPix in depth: integration and operationsAccepting payments in Argentina and ChileAccepting payments in Colombia and PeruPayments in Latin America: Pix, cash, and cuotasOpening a new market: the payments playbook
Card schemes
Pluxee BrasilOne of Brazil’s largest issuers of vale-refeição and vale-alimentação (meal and food benefit cards), alongside Alelo, Ticket (Edenred), and VR. These closed payment arrangements are a regulated category in their own right, supervised by the Banco Central do Brasil, with their own rules on merchant enrollment, limits, and acceptance: a Brazilian food merchant has to integrate them separately from the mainstream card networks.Pluxee Brasil (formerly Sodexo Benefícios e Incentivos, renamed after the Sodexo group spin-off; a closed payment arrangement supervised by the Banco Central do Brasil)156,000 corporate clients, 7.7 million cardholders, and more than 850,000 accredited merchants in Brazil (Pluxee Brasil, 2026)
HipercardDiscontinuedBrazil's second domestic card scheme after Elo, with an outsized presence in the Nordeste, especially Pernambuco. DISCONTINUED: the Central Bank of Brazil authorized the brand's closure in June 2025, no Hipercard transaction has been approved since July 1, 2025, and the card base was moved to Mastercard. Check for it in any Brazilian acceptance contract signed before that date.Itaú Unibanco (The brand began as the store card of the Bompreço supermarket chain in Recife. It came under Unibanco's control when Walmart bought Bompreço in 2004, then under Itaú Unibanco's after the 2008 merger.) · since 1968More than 3.7% of Brazil's credit card market and about 15 million cardholders migrated to Mastercard at closure (Brazilian business press, 2025)
Instant payments
PixThe world’s benchmark instant rail: free for consumers, addressed by “chave” (CPF/CNPJ tax ID, phone number, email, random key), with a mandatory EMVCo QR code and a regulatory requirement to join for any institution with more than 500,000 accounts. In five years it has reduced boletos and DOC/TED to residual rails. Any payment collection project in Brazil starts with Pix.Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) (via the SPI infrastructure) · since 202079.8 billion transactions and R$35.36 trillion in 2025, up 33.6% in value from 2024 (BCB, reported by ClearingPost, 2026); 54.7% of retail transactions in H2 2025 (BCB); about 175 million users, about 93% of the adult population (BCB, 2025); about 7.9 billion transactions in December 2025 alone
SPI (Sistema de Pagamentos Instantâneos)The real-time gross settlement infrastructure that runs Pix, as distinct from the consumer brand. The distinction matters for integration: an institution joins the SPI (settlement in central bank money, 24/7/365) and offers Pix to its users. The DICT, the key directory, is its second component.Banco Central do Brasil · since 2020
TED (Transferência Eletrônica Disponível)A same-day transfer available during business hours, and for years Brazil’s only fast rail. Pix has largely cannibalized it, but TED remains in use for large amounts and some institutional flows, because each bank sets its own Pix limits.Banco Central do Brasil (offered by the sending banks and settled in central bank money through STR, the Banco Central do Brasil’s RTGS) · since 2002
Pix Saque e Pix TrocoCash withdrawal (Saque) and cash back (Troco) at a merchant, settled via Pix: the store becomes a cash point, with no ATM and no cash-in-transit network. It is a structural response to ATM deserts in rural Brazil, and a detail every integrator needs to know: here the merchant is on the payer side of the flow, with the accounting and risk implications that come with it.Banco Central do Brasil (Pix features defined by the central bank and mandatory for all participants) · since 2021
MED (Mecanismo Especial de Devolução)A mechanism for recovering funds after fraud or an operational failure on a Pix payment. The victim reports it to their bank, which can have any funds still held by the recipient frozen and then returned. It is the piece most often missing from analyses of Pix, even though it is Pix’s only consumer protection: an instant transfer is irrevocable by design.Banco Central do Brasil (a mechanism mandatory for all Pix participants and governed by the Pix regulation) · since 2021
Pix por AproximaçãoInitiating a Pix payment by tapping the phone on the terminal, with no QR code to scan. Brazil gets the convenience of contactless card payments on an instant credit transfer rail. This is where Pix stops being a substitute for bank transfers and becomes a direct substitute for cards at the point of sale.Banco Central do Brasil (a Pix feature delivered through mobile wallets and the terminal’s NFC reader)
Clearing and settlement
Boleto BancárioA barcoded payment slip paid in cash or by debit, historically the rail for the unbanked and for B2B. The Nova Plataforma de Cobrança centralized registration and eliminated “unregistered” boletos. It remains legally useful: it is an enforceable instrument, unlike a Pix transfer.Nuclea (formerly CIP; operates the Nova Plataforma de Cobrança under the supervision of the Banco Central do Brasil, with Febraban acting as the boleto’s standard-setting body rather than as operator) · since 1993
DOC / TECDiscontinuedRetail credit transfers settled on D+1, abolished by the BCB in February 2024 in favor of Pix and TED. Still mentioned in old contracts and technical documentation, so readers should know the rail no longer exists.Nuclea (formerly CIP) · since 1980
SILOC and SITRAFRetail clearing houses: SILOC for deferred clearing (boletos, débitos) and SITRAF for continuous settlement. Nuclea remains the main private operator of Brazil’s interbank infrastructure outside the BCB.Nuclea (formerly Câmara Interbancária de Pagamentos (CIP)) · since 2002
Wallets
PicPayBrazilian wallet turned full digital bank, with accounts, credit cards, Pix, loans, and investments. A textbook case of a wallet whose original value proposition, P2P payments with cashback, was absorbed by a free public rail, forcing it to pivot to lending and accounts.PicPaymore than 68 million Brazilian customers (PicPay, 2026)
Buy now, pay later
Pix ParceladoInstallment payments on top of Pix: the merchant is paid in full in central bank money, and the buyer repays a loan to their own institution. It is not a component of the rail but a credit product layered on it. The distinction matters: terms, risk, and cost vary by participant, and none of it binds the Banco Central do Brasil.a credit product offered by each participating bank or payment institution, running on the Banco Central do Brasil’s Pix rail
Acquiring and processing
CieloBrazil’s original No. 1 acquirer, in a market that is now highly fragmented (Rede/Itaú, Getnet/Santander, Stone, PagBank/PagSeguro, SumUp). Regulatory opening of acquiring, terminal interoperability, and antecipação de recebíveis (receivables prepayment) make Brazil the most competitive acquiring market in the region.Cielo S.A. (Banco do Brasil, Bradesco) · since 1995
RedeBrazil’s second incumbent acquirer, backed by Itaú Unibanco: capture, switching, and settlement of card transactions, plus merchant receivables prepayment. With Cielo, Getnet, Stone, and PagBank, it is one of the five players that make Brazilian acquiring the most competitive market in the region. Looking at Cielo alone gives a badly distorted view of market share.Redecard Instituição de Pagamento S.A. (controlled by Itaú Unibanco since March 2009; the former Redecard, listed on the Bovespa in 2007, was delisted in 2012 after Itaú bought out the minority shareholders, and then renamed Rede in 2013) · since 1996R$2.058 billion in service revenue and R$3.770 billion in financial intermediation revenue, for net income of R$1.888 billion in 2025 (Rede, 2025)
StoneAn independent Brazilian acquirer that built its position with small businesses, offering integrated payments, accounts, and credit through a local sales force rather than a bank branch network. It is the counterexample that proves an acquirer without a bank behind it can win significant market share in a country where acquiring has historically been bank-owned.StoneCo Ltd. (listed on Nasdaq since October 2018; an independent group with no bank parent, unlike Cielo, Rede, and Getnet) · since 2012
PagBank (PagSeguro)An acquirer turned digital bank: PagBank serves Brazilian micro-merchants and sole proprietors by combining the terminal, a payment account, and credit. Its path mirrors the broader Brazilian market, where acquiring alone no longer sustains margins and now serves as the gateway to a banking relationship.PagSeguro Digital Ltd. (spun out of the Universo Online (UOL) group, incorporated in the Cayman Islands and run from São Paulo; listed on the NYSE as PAGS since January 2018 and renamed PagBank in May 2023) · since 2006US$3.1 billion in revenue and US$487 million in net income in 2025; credit portfolio up 33% to R$4.6 billion (PagBank PagSeguro, 2025)
Central bank digital currency
Drex (Real Digital)PilotWholesale CBDC and settlement platform for tokenized assets, not a retail currency. A major shift was reported at the end of 2025: much of the blockchain/DLT component was dropped because of maintenance costs and unresolved privacy issues, in favor of a more centralized model. The timeline has slipped several times, so treat it as a project, not a rail.Banco Central do Brasil · since 2023
Other
Interchange framework: Resolução BCB nº 246/2022 (Brazil)Brazil caps debit and prepaid but leaves credit uncapped. Two effects matter. Fintech prepaid cards were being used to get around the debit cap, a loophole the BCB (Banco Central do Brasil) closed in 2022. And the squeeze on debit, combined with free Pix for individuals, explains the massive shift from debit cards to instant transfers. Domestic schemes (Elo) are subject to the same caps as Visa and Mastercard.Banco Central do Brasil · since 2022A 0.5% cap (a hard ceiling, not an average) on debit card interchange and 0.7% on prepaid cards, along with rules on settlement timelines; in force since April 1, 2023 (Banco Central do Brasil, Resolução BCB nº 246, 2022).
Open Finance BrasilMandatory open banking rolled out in four phases, including payment initiation (ITP), which triggers Pix payments from a third-party app without a heavy redirect. It underpins “Pix by Open Finance” and competition in payment initiation, which matters to any PSP looking to bypass the banking app.Banco Central do Brasil (dedicated governance structure) · since 2021
STR (Sistema de Transferência de Reservas)Brazil’s RTGS, the foundation for central bank money settlement of TED, clearing houses, and the SPI. Any institution that wants to settle in its own name in Brazil needs a Reservas Bancárias account or a Conta de Liquidação at the STR.Banco Central do Brasil · since 2002