Brazil’s Pix has reached mass adoption, Mexico’s SPEI provides one of the region’s longest-running real-time transfer systems, and Colombia’s Bre-B is expanding rapidly. Together, they show how instant payments are becoming essential financial infrastructure across Latin America.

Instant payments are becoming a central part of Latin America’s financial infrastructure. Although the region’s systems differ in design and maturity, they point towards the same trend: transfers are becoming faster, more interoperable and increasingly integrated into everyday economic activity.

Brazil sets the regional benchmark

Launched by the Banco Central do Brasil in November 2020, Pix has become Latin America’s most prominent instant-payment system. It processed 63.4bn transactions in 2024, up by around 51% from the previous year. The platform has moved beyond transfers between individuals to support retail purchases, bills and a growing volume of business payments.

Its scale continues to increase. On December 5, 2025, Pix processed a record 313.3mn transactions worth BRL 179.9bn in a single day. The record coincided with the year-end salary and bonus season, illustrating how deeply the system has become embedded in Brazil’s economy.

The success of Pix reflects more than technological convenience. Its broad availability, straightforward user experience and integration with a highly banked population helped it become an alternative to cash, cards and conventional bank transfers.

Mexico’s long-established infrastructure

Mexico followed a different path. The Sistema de Pagos Electrónicos Interbancarios, better known as SPEI, began operating in August 2004 and is administered by Banco de México. It allows individuals, businesses and financial institutions to transfer funds between accounts in real time.

Unlike Pix, which was launched as a highly visible consumer-facing product, SPEI developed primarily as the infrastructure underpinning interbank transfers. It now operates around the clock, with participating institutions required to process and credit payments within seconds.

This distinction illustrates the evolution of instant payments in Latin America. Earlier systems focused on improving settlement between financial institutions, while newer models place greater emphasis on payment keys, a branded consumer experience and interoperability across banks, fintech companies and digital wallets.

Colombia accelerates adoption

Colombia’s Bre-B represents the region’s newer generation of instant-payment systems. During its first year, monthly transactions increased from around 60mn to more than 240mn, with approximately COP 30tn transferred each month. By September 2026, 36.6mn users had registered around 110mn payment keys.

Participation expanded from 25 institutions before the system’s launch to approximately 245, including smaller financial entities and cooperatives. This broad network has helped extend interoperability beyond the largest banks.

In per-capita terms, Bre-B recorded approximately 35.5 payments during its first year, compared with around 45 for Pix at the same stage. While institutional and demographic differences make direct comparisons difficult, the figures point to a similarly rapid initial adoption curve.

The next frontier is business payments

Across the region, instant payments initially gained traction through transfers between individuals. Their next stage of development is increasingly connected to businesses, including merchant payments, payroll, collections and supplier transactions.

Brazil is the most advanced in this transition. Business-to-business payments already represent a substantial share of the value processed through Pix, despite accounting for a much smaller proportion of transaction volumes.

Colombia is preparing to move in the same direction. Banco de la República expects Bre-B to support payroll, supplier payments, collections and other mass disbursements from 2027. Corporate adoption will nevertheless require more than speed. Business transactions involve invoice references, reconciliation data, fraud controls and the capacity to process large batches of payments.

Instant payments meet open finance

The expansion of instant payments is occurring alongside a broader shift towards open finance. Together, these developments could create a financial ecosystem in which consumers can move both their money and their financial information more easily between providers.

Brazil has established one of the region’s most developed open-finance frameworks, complementing the expansion of Pix. Colombia is moving towards a mandatory model under Decree 368 of 2026, which seeks to facilitate data sharing, promote financial inclusion and support the entry of new competitors and business models.

Combining instant payments with consent-based financial data could enable fintech companies and banks to develop more personalised credit, payment and cash-management services. However, it also raises questions around cybersecurity, consumer consent, fraud prevention and responsibility when transactions cross several platforms.

Different systems, a common direction

Latin America does not have a single model for instant payments. Mexico built its core infrastructure more than two decades ago, Brazil transformed instant payments into a mass-market product, and Colombia is using the lessons from earlier systems to accelerate adoption.

The next phase will depend less on how many people register and more on how deeply these systems become integrated into commerce, payroll, supplier relationships and cross-border payments. Their ability to support those uses will determine whether Latin America’s instant-payment boom produces a lasting transformation of the regional financial system.

—

Want to unlock new market opportunities? ISI EMIS provides company and industry intelligence to analyse markets, evaluate opportunities, and assess risk. Learn more about ISI EMIS.