Digital Payments & Fintech - Brazil

Law No. 12,865/2013 empowers the BCB to regulate retail payments and separated payment activities from the traditional banking model, lowering entry barriers. The BCB (with the CMN) authorizes and supervises payment institutions and payment arrangements that make up the Brazilian Payment System (SPB), guided by principles of efficiency, security, interoperability and financial inclusion.

All payment institutions must obtain prior BCB authorization to operate. Categories include e-money (prepaid) issuers, postpaid payment-instrument issuers, and acquirers; recent rules (BCB Resolution #495/2025 and Joint Resolution #14/2025) require previously unlicensed e-money issuers, postpaid issuers and acquirers to apply for a license, with a key application window of May 1–31, 2026.

Licensing requires minimum capital of roughly R$2,000,000 multiplied by the number of operational-activity categories (or R$5,000,000 where the institution depends on its own data-processing/storage/network/security infrastructure), plus qualified management and a genuine head-office address (shared/coworking/virtual offices are prohibited except within the same conglomerate).

The BCB owns and operates Pix, Brazil's instant-payment system. BCB Resolution No. 493 (Aug 2025) strengthened Pix Forum governance, the Special Return Mechanism (MED) and Pix-key procedures; BCB Resolution No. 496 (Sept 2025) requires non-authorized payment institutions to obtain BCB accreditation to participate in Pix (application window Jan 1–May 1, 2026) and caps transactions for participants connecting via IT service providers at R$15,000.

Open Finance Brasil (formerly Open Banking Brasil) was established by Joint Resolution BCB/CMN No. 1/2020 and rolled out in phases from 2021, expanding to cover banking, payments, insurance, investments, pensions and FX. Joint Resolution 10/2024 (July 5, 2024) updated participation criteria, payment-initiation flows and governance (Resolution 400/2024), and a dedicated Open Finance Brazil Association now provides governance.

Buy-now-pay-later in Brazil is provided largely by licensed banks and fintechs as a credit product. The BCB introduced a standardized installment feature, Pix Parcelado, with the operating framework published in late October 2025 and a second phase of rules on credit-agreement and repayment requirements set for December 2025, bringing Pix-based installment credit under formal regulatory standards.