Pix completes a year between security controversies and more than 100 million users

Pix completes one year this Tuesday (16) and has already accumulated 112.6 million users. According to the Central Bank, it was the instant payment system with the fastest adoption in the world. Between mistakes and successes, the new tool facilitated transfers and enabled new business models.

Since its launch, Pix’s success has been consolidated among individuals, who account for 93.4% of registered users today. Among companies, adherence was slower, with 7.4 million (6.57% of users).

According to the monetary authority, this is because traders need to adapt the systems to receive with Pix. Even so, in absolute numbers, the number of registered companies grows every day. In January, there were 3.98 million registered establishments.

According to a survey carried out by Sebrae (Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service), eight out of ten small businesses use the new payment method. “Smaller businesses found it easier to implement receipts with Pix because cash management systems are less complex. Adoption by self-employed workers, for example, was almost instantaneous”, says Carlos Netto, president of Matera, a technology company for the market financial.

Vivaldo Gonçalves dos Santos, 60, sells coconut water in the central area of ​​Brasília and adopted the new system two months after its launch. “I was suspicious and wanted to wait and see if it would work out. Today, half of my sales are made with Pix”, he says.

Santos claims that he has benefited from the system because it is free and the money is readily available. “Once a client said he was going to make Pix, showed me the screen, but ended up not doing it and left without paying. That was the only problem I had”, he recalls.

Kayllan Jorge Rodrigues, 26, owns an electronics store in the Southwest, a neighborhood in the central region of Brasília, and reports that 20% of his sales are made with Pix. On the other hand, since the launch of the new tool, a period that was also marked by the pandemic and social isolation, cash payments have fallen by 30%.

“The main means of payment is still a card, but I believe that the trend is for the use of Pix to grow, because it has an advantage for those who pay and for those who receive it,” he says.

Until October, 348 million keys were registered in Pix. One person can make up to five keys per account and one company, up to 20.

In practice, those who register the keys do not need to inform all their data when transferring money or paying for Pix. The person will only need to say the registered key (CPF, email or cell phone number, for example).

In all, the system has 227 million registered accounts.

In a short time, Pix became one of the most used means for transferring resources and surpassed the traditional DOC (Credit Order Document) and TED (Available Electronic Transfer). Since its launch, the Pix has handled R$3.9 trillion.

Netto attributes the rapid adoption of the model by the population to a series of factors. “Even having a name helped [na adesão]. In some countries they created a centralized but unnamed system. So people didn’t know how to order because each bank named its own. In addition, it was essential to have forced the big banks to offer the service”, he says.

For Marcelo Martins, director of ABFintechs (Brazilian Association of Fintechs), the balance of the first year of the instant payment system is positive. “We had a busy year for the sector, since the beginning of this year, Pix has gone through 51 regulatory changes and many innovations. To meet all needs, it is necessary to put into practice all the features provided for in the schedule”, he points out.

Since November of last year, Pix has integrated new features, such as Pix charging, which is similar to the bank slip, with a future maturity. The tool, which had its implementation postponed three times, began to be offered on May 14th.

The timetable for adding other utilities is extensive. On November 29, Pix saque and Pix exchange will start working.

Both will enable the withdrawal of cash resources, but Pix Saque is a transaction exclusively for withdrawal and Pix Troco is associated with a purchase or provision of a service. In the latter case, when purchasing a product, for example, the customer spends a higher amount to receive the rest in cash.

Other functions, such as debit to account and offline payment, are also expected to be launched in the coming months.

For Martins, it is impossible to predict the future innovations that will emerge within the new model. “It will depend a lot on the needs of users, on the demand of establishments. The innovation agenda is endless”, he highlights.

In the beginning, Pix gained unusual functions, such as social networking and flirting. Many started to use the system to send small amounts as a way to send a message. “We didn’t imagine, for example, that people would use a means of payment for this purpose”, says the director of ABFintechs.

The agility of the new payment system, however, paved the way for criminals to improve their scams – with Pix, they can quickly spread money across multiple accounts, making the police’s job more difficult. Pix has also made it easier for criminals to engage in kidnappings and robberies.

Many of these accounts used by crooks are for oranges, which are rented or lent by third parties.

With the boom in crimes involving Pix, BC recently implemented security measures to reduce the vulnerability of systems to the actions of criminals in fraud, kidnapping and other crimes.

For example, a limit of R$1,000 was set for operations on digital channels, such as Pix and TED, between individuals at night, which began to apply on October 4th.

Retired Dirlene Fiel dos Santos de Souza, 63, resident of Asa Norte, in Brasília, was the victim of a scam applied by WhatsApp in which the criminal asked for money through Pix. Because of the new rule, she managed to transfer only R$1,000, but ended up sending another R$9,000 through TED, a channel through which she had a higher limit.

“The person said it was my daughter and had her photo in her profile. She asked me to transfer the money and I didn’t think twice, even because she had a trip scheduled, I thought that could be why. I even took money from the savings account. I only realized it was a scam when I sent a message to the number I had already had asking if I had received it and she didn’t know what it was,” he recalls.

Souza says he filed a police report and asked his bank for help. “The money was sent to an account in a digital bank, but when I went after it, the money had already been transferred to other accounts and was even withdrawn,” he says.

Amid security controversies, in September the BC recorded the first case of leaking Pix keys. According to the autarchy, the database of Banese (Banco do Estado de Sergipe) was used to expose 395,000 keys of customers from other institutions due to “specific failures in the systems of that financial institution”.

Soon after, the monetary authority claimed to have adopted complementary mechanisms for monitoring the systems of financial institutions participating in the Pix.

According to the autarchy, one of the initiatives was to reinforce the handling of queries in the key system in atypical volumes.

TIMELINE

16.nov.20

Launching Pix for Transfers and Payments

3.Dec.20

Keys registered on Pix exceed 100 million

31.jan.21

Pix exceeds TED and DOC in number of transactions

18.mar.21

BC authorizes mobile phonebook integration to Pix

30 Apr 21

Pix surpasses the R$1 trillion mark in moves since launch

1º.jul.21

Pix sets a record for transactions in one day, with 27.9 million

​14.mai.21

Pix release charge

27.ago.21

BC Announces Change in Pix Rules to Increase Security and Reduce Systems Vulnerability to Criminal Action

22.set.21

Pix surpasses 100 million users

30.set.21

BC registers first case of data leakage, with 395,000 keys exposed

4.out.21

It starts to be worth a limit of R$1,000 for transfers between people on Pix

28.out.21

Pix is ​​integrated into open banking

16.nov.21

Pix is ​​one year old and the special refund mechanism starts to apply in case of fraud or other crimes

29.nov.21

Release of Pix change and Pix withdrawal

Us next months

Expected launch of Pix offline, Pix debit account, Pix approximation and guaranteed Pix (which allows for installment purchases)