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Brazil's government-run payments system has become dominant

(www.economist.com)
666 points jcartw | 2 comments | 08 Apr 25 10:59 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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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. dyauspitr ◴[08 Apr 25 18:27 UTC] No.43624958[source]▶
UPI from India is a much better system in my opinion since it’s decentralized and doesn’t give all the power to the central bank.
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2. manquer ◴[08 Apr 25 23:16 UTC] No.43627409[source]▶
How so ? While it is P2P protocol, the network is pretty centralized.

UPI is owned by NPCI(gov entity) and runs on top of IMPS both the networks are strongly regulated by RBI the central bank.

There is fair amount of regulation and KYC/ AML requirements before an app/service gets direct access to the network and even then it can be pretty challenging. WhatsApp struggled for years to get UPI integration .

Holding money in a wallet has even more regulations than merely transferring it .

Payment networks tend to centralize by their nature. I see pix or UPI as competitor to Mastercard or VISA , they have proven it is possible to run a network far cheaper than claimed