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Central Bank of Brazil starts testing settlement infrastructure for instant payments

Thursday 16 April 2020 05:32 CET | News

The Central Bank of Brazil has started a new phase in the testing process for Pix, the upcoming national instant payments platform.

For this testing stage, the participation of financial and payment institutions is voluntary, with institutions testing their settlement flows using fictitious data. Pix is expected to go live in November 2020, enabling round-the-clock payments. This testing stage focuses on transaction flows between the participants of the instant payment platform and scenarios of failure around the settlement capabilities of the platform.

Citing the Central Bank, ZDnet said that this stage is testing the most critical functionalities of Pix's centralised settlement system, as well as the tech infrastructure that is required for the operation of the service.

The next step in the development of Pix is to carry out mandatory tests for all participating institutions in June 2020. The Central Bank of Brazil announced Pix in February 2020. The idea is to provide an alternative to the current transaction models, such as same-day and next-day transfers on weekdays as well as cheques.

Instant payments made using QR Codes will be introduced as part of the upcoming changes. In March 2020, the Central Bank launched its standard for QR Codes, to universalise cashless payments in Brazil, which will become mandatory in September 2020.

Currently, Brazilians cannot make financial transactions outside banking hours and make real-time payments on weekends, for example. Under the new model, transactions will be fulfilled in up to 20 seconds.
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Keywords: Central Bank of Brazil, PIX, instant payments, cashless payments, real time payments, Brazil, settlement system
Categories: Banking & Fintech
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Countries: Brazil
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Banking & Fintech






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