Brazil's government-run payments system has become dominant

So this sounds just like PayID in Australia or what was payM in the UK (which got shut down a couple of years ago due to lack of use), minus the QR code generation part.

It's used between private people to make it easier to send money to one another without having to type in bank account details, but never really used to pay businesses (except under the table).

How come this is so popular in Brasil for paying businesses vs using a card or your phone to tap and pay (which seems more convenient)?

> payM in the UK (which got shut down a couple of years ago due to lack of use)

I'd never even heard of this! Certainly never seen anyone offering it. Guess it got run over by lack of state capacity during Brexit etc.

> paying businesses vs using a card or your phone to tap and pay

These schemes (izettle etc) have higher costs. The poorer the country the more significant a low-cost business TX option is.

I remember most banks having it when it first came out, I used it a couple of times to pay friends but few people knew about it.

It was pretty simple and worked well, especially compared to having to give bank account details.

That being said, I am in Australia now which has a similar system and I'd say 95% of my friends just give me the bank details instead of saying 'just use PayId with my phone number'.