Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • December 2021
  • Case
  • HBS Case Collection

The Instant Payment Mandate: The Central Bank of Brazil and Pix

By: Lauren Cohen and Spencer C. N. Hagist
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:15
ShareBar

Abstract

João M. P. De Mello and his team at the Central Bank of Brazil are preparing a move that would seek to tilt the scales in favor of financial inclusion for the entire country. The innovation at hand is the unprecedented nation-wide instant payment scheme: Pix. The fruit of years of planning and patience in the face of a banking industry refusing to change, De Mello seeks to kick start a wave of pro-consumer FinTech advancements for a sector whose growth has been relatively halted. While the success of similar wide-spread payment structures using mobile technology have drawn a clear roadmap in other countries, no other central bank has ever dared to undertake the task itself, preferring instead to let the private sector push ahead and regulate later. Pix would be the first instance of a government taking such massive upskilling into its own hands. At the same time, the risks De Mello and his team face will be entirely new as well. Will Pix be the highway to modernity so many imagine? Or will its challenges prove insurmountable, tarnishing growth and turning the country away from trusting the BCB at such a scale ever again?

Keywords

Fintech; Finance; Entrepreneurship; Innovation Strategy; Banking Industry; Brazil

Citation

Cohen, Lauren, and Spencer C. N. Hagist. "The Instant Payment Mandate: The Central Bank of Brazil and Pix." Harvard Business School Case 222-053, December 2021.
  • Educators
  • Purchase

About The Author

Lauren H. Cohen

Finance
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • June 2025
    • Faculty Research

    (Family) Size Matters: Nico Oprée and the Decreasing Power of Family Unity over Time

    By: Lauren Cohen, Octavian Graf Pilati, Dominik V. Eynern and Sophia Pan
    • May 2025
    • Faculty Research

    'Net Zero in Action': Impact Investing at the McKnight Foundation

    By: Lauren Cohen, Christina R. Wing and Sophia Pan
    • May 2025
    • Faculty Research

    The Micro-Family Office: Aamir Rehman

    By: Lauren Cohen and Sophia Pan
More from the Authors
  • (Family) Size Matters: Nico Oprée and the Decreasing Power of Family Unity over Time By: Lauren Cohen, Octavian Graf Pilati, Dominik V. Eynern and Sophia Pan
  • 'Net Zero in Action': Impact Investing at the McKnight Foundation By: Lauren Cohen, Christina R. Wing and Sophia Pan
  • The Micro-Family Office: Aamir Rehman By: Lauren Cohen and Sophia Pan
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College.