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Brazil's government-run payments system has become dominant

(www.economist.com)
666 points jcartw | 6 comments | 08 Apr 25 10:59 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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bestouff ◴[08 Apr 25 11:47 UTC] No.43620573[source]▶
> Pix has spiced up Brazil’s fusty banking sector, but it gives the central bank a worrying amount of power

I think a largely prefer a government-run payment system than an US company monopoly.

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1. dtquad ◴[08 Apr 25 12:23 UTC] No.43620874[source]▶
There are alternatives to both inefficient government-run monopolies and US tech giant monopolies.

Even a small country like Denmark has multiple software and finance companies doing apps and software in the digital payments and banking field.

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2. Gud ◴[08 Apr 25 12:55 UTC] No.43621208[source]▶
Why do you assume a government-run monopoly is inefficient?

You should try to take a train in Switzerland sometime. Its government run and I guarantee you will be mind blown over its efficiency.

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3. wtcactus ◴[08 Apr 25 13:05 UTC] No.43621334[source]▶
You should take one in Portugal, where it’s also government run…
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4. Gud ◴[08 Apr 25 13:17 UTC] No.43621468{3}[source]▶
I made no assumption that government run organisations are necessarily efficient. The comment I responded to implied that government monopolies are inefficient by their nature, which I would argue against.
5. Vinnl ◴[09 Apr 25 07:51 UTC] No.43629830[source]▶
You would think, but is it in practice? In the Netherlands (and I believe many/most other countries), practically all non-cash payments are handled by either Visa or Mastercard. Technically a duopoly, but that's not a huge improvement either.
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6. dtquad ◴[09 Apr 25 09:49 UTC] No.43630465[source]▶
Interesting and important question.

I know MobilePay by Danske Bank is one of the most popular payment apps and can be linked directly to a Danish bank account (probably using the Danish "Dankort" payment infrastructure) without Visa/Mastercard involvement.

Most Danish POS and e-commerce solutions support MobilePay and surprisingly the biggest international POS/e-commerce providers also support MobilePay:

https://docs.adyen.com/payment-methods/mobilepay/

https://stripe.com/en-dk/payment-method/mobilepay

https://help.shopify.com/da/manual/payments/shopify-payments...

Our independence from US-based Visa/Mastercard payment infrastructure is enabled by our decades-old "Dankort" digital payment infrastructure that was initially based on magnetic strip cards. Even today most people opt for a so-called "Visa/Dankort" chip card that domestically use the Danish Dankort payment infrastructure but can internationally be used as a Visa.