Even five years after Pix’s inception, TED remains the preferred method for high-value operations. Data released by the Central Bank (BC) shows that although Pix became the leader in the number of transactions in 2021, TED is still larger in terms of the financial volume handled.
Although BC does not disclose the breakdown between individuals and legal entities, data processed by Núclea indicates that 85% of TEDs implemented in 2025 came from companies. The percentage remained stable, reaching 83% in 2022 and 17% for individuals. Nuclea processes TEDs up to R$ 1 million, while operations exceeding this amount are performed directly by BC.
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Businesses’ resistance to moving to Pix has more to do with technical and security factors than cost. “When we talk about transaction costs, the cost of TED is actually very low as well,” says Rodrigo Furiato, vice president of business at Núclea. “For banks, the cost of TED ranges from R$0.01 to R$0.02. A pix is 0.1 cent, but when we talk about transactions worth thousands and millions of reais, this is ridiculous.”
The problem is that migrating operations to Pix involves updating legacy business management systems (ERPs), which are not yet compatible, especially in large companies. “Companies have a lot of reconciliation work to do, and they were prepared to reconcile TED, DOC, check and invoice,” says Adriano Milani, head of financial services at Citi. “To move to Pix, they have to adapt their systems.”
“(TED) is very focused on large companies that transact with very large amounts, for example, in accounts payable or legacy systems, and it wasn’t worth upgrading to Pix yet,” says Francisco Carvalho, director of product and IT at Efí Bank.
Although it mainly serves small and medium-sized businesses, Efí has also analyzed data from its database to compare transactions. While average conversions at Pix range from R$90 to R$140, at TED the value goes up to R$15k to R$17k.
For Fabio Montanari, CEO of Montanari Tecnologia, there is still a hurdle related to governance. “Large companies have a lot to do with the issue of ‘compliance’, that is, having a process with a certain maturity to be able to carry out this migration, because there are very high values in these transactions.”
Foriato stresses that security is a crucial point, as BIX is more vulnerable to human error. “Imagine a company that transfers millions of riyals,” he says. “If anyone makes a mistake, they go to the wrong place.” “At TED, even though it’s more complicated with the agency attribution and the calculation and the CNPJ and everything else, if there’s any wrong data, TED comes back.”
The technology upgrade is necessary because TED and Pix operate on different tracks in British Columbia. TED is processed in the Reserve Transfer System (STR), which is the heart of the Brazilian Payment System (SPB). Pix runs on the Pay As You Go (SPI) system.
On the other hand, if immigration represents an additional cost for businesses, it could reduce expenses for British Columbia itself, which currently needs to maintain both infrastructures. Experts interviewed by Valor say BC would rather focus on Pix than maintain TED as well. When contacted, the BBC did not comment.
In Carvalho’s view, from Effie’s, it’s only a matter of time before BEX also overtakes TED in terms of financial size. “The Pix product life cycle is not over yet. Individuals no longer remember what TED is, and small and medium-sized businesses have a very large following, but the ‘enterprise’ sector still largely uses TED due to the old accounts payable (system).”
Milani, from Citi, highlights that corporate adoption of Pix is indeed important, but the migration of large companies still using TED will only happen if they see some advantage in making the investment – which could be uninterrupted availability or even creating an international Pix. “For companies that import and export, this can be more transformative than it was for Pix.”
For Furiato, the two approaches will continue to coexist. According to him, TED still plays an important role as a natural emergency vehicle for Pix, in addition to being in demand by the market as an alternative payment method. “Our conviction is that these two payment methods will coexist for a long time.”
Betting on this, Núclea has invested in upgrading TED’s infrastructure and is considering making it available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “We have spent the last two years modernizing Núclea’s TED system, and we have discussed with the central bank the possibility of relaying all TED transactions here, including those worth more than R$1 million,” says Foriato.
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