Still without an official launch date by the central bank, Pix Installment will be a new method of payment and access to credit by the payer that will allow installments within a Pix transaction. Thus, the recipient will receive the full amount immediately, quickly and securely, and the payer will then make installment payments over a specified period of time to repay the total. “For a medium-sized company, regulation will expand the negotiation possibilities between companies, customers and suppliers,” says Paolo Doilippi, corporate director at the company. Santander.
According to him, with this resource, they will be able to offer new payment terms, stimulate consumption and improve cash flow. In parallel, what PIX was as an alternative to transfers of resources via DOC, could be installments for credit cards, including for businesses. The new model is expected to be available in 2026.
Installment Bix will be a new product that is not tied to the customer’s credit card limit and is an option for the company instead of issuing an invoice to its supplier. “This model can bring greater streamlining to companies’ cash flow, as well as the ability to negotiate better commercial terms with their suppliers,” Valor says. Itau.
According to the central bank, Pix, created in November 2020, processed more than R$26 trillion in 2024 and broke a record for single-day transactions, exceeding 227 million transactions. “The original Pix experience was very good and was adopted well. This is an excellent indicator that annuities can follow the same line, including use by medium-sized companies,” says Jorge Azevedo, a specialist in credit and risk management.
For the business partner of a medium-sized company, the installments will serve as an alternative line of credit, with greater flexibility and operational simplicity. “This dynamic has the potential to reduce reliance on traditional lines of credit, as well as make business-to-business transactions more flexible and predictable,” says Al-Dailabi. The Supplier may, for example, instead of offering payment by bank voucher, offer PIX in instalments. “It will be an alternative to liquidity,” Azevedo says, without ruling out the possibility of the company simply negotiating a cheaper, if more attractive, traditional line of credit with banks.
According to experts, this method can also increase sales of companies as a whole. “At that end, it takes over some of the unaddressed areas, increasing the number of people who have access to the ‘line of credit.’ Those who didn’t have a credit card now get PIX in installments,” Azevedo says. Credit risk now lies not with the retailer (as in the case of a bank voucher), but with the bank. “Through this channel, it is also possible to sell higher priced products to some customers who may not have a limit or access to any other financing option,” he adds.
It looks like it, but it’s not a credit card
Duailibi sees Pix Parcelado as a new credit alternative, but with different card features. “We believe that the market should have the autonomy to set commercial terms, rates and credit models according to the risk profile and strategy of each participant. Therefore, interest terms and fees are not necessarily equivalent to those of a card, but rather may represent a simpler, more transparent and integrated option for the digital payment journey.”
From the point of view of the risk borne by the issuer, in both BEX and credit card installments, the bank bears the customer’s default, but the operational logic is different. With a Pix installment plan, it charges the interest directly from the consumer and begins to bear the full risk of the installment within the Pix arrangement itself, which does not include the brands or acquirers. With credit cards, the risk also falls on the issuer, but involves a more complex ecosystem – with brands, settlement rules and potential advance fees – where the retailer generally receives payment within 30 days (or sooner, paying for that advance) and the issuing bank bears the risk of non-payment of invoices.
“We see the Pix installment system as another layer of innovation within the Pix ecosystem, offering the customer a different solution for each context, whether paying by cash, credit, installments or automatically,” says Itao. The rules of the method will be set by the central bank.
“This will be a challenge for the central bank, especially when it comes to protecting the system from installment BEX fraud, a role that belongs not only to it, but to the system as a whole,” Azevedo says. The postponement of the launch of the method could have been influenced by a hacker attack in September on companies that connect the financial system to Pix, aiming to increase the security of the new product.