Why Latin America Now Pays With Instant Transfers More Often Than Cards
In 2017, instant payments made up only 2% of digital transactions across 11 Latin American countries. By 2024, that share had grown more than 20-fold to 45%. For the first time, people in those countries paid with instant transfers more often than with cards.
Over the past decade, instant payments in Latin America have exploded in popularity. Brazil's Pix network, launched in 2020, passed 1 billion registered keys (individual payment addresses) in September and processes more than 200 million transactions a day on average. Colombia's Bre-B, which launched in October 2025, processed close to 1.8 billion transactions in its first year. Instant payment networks are up, running and popular in Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and beyond.
So far, instant payments have mostly driven person-to-person transfers and small business payments in Latin America, filling the role apps like PayPal, Zelle and Alipay play elsewhere. They've become the alternative to keeping bills in a wallet and an easy way for business owners to accept payment through a QR code or an app.
But the B2B applications of these networks are still maturing, and different countries are at different stages. Mexico and Brazil are already moving serious money over their rails: payments between companies are now the largest share of Pix's total value, and the share of Mexican businesses accepting electronic transfers nearly doubled between 2018 and 2023. If more countries follow Brazil and Mexico, instant rails could change how money moves through the Latin American economy, and much of that potential is still untapped.
How Instant Payment Systems Spread Across Latin America
Instant payments are bank transfers that settle in real time, 24/7, instead of in batches during business hours. Once the money lands, the payment is final. Across much of Latin America, central banks have built or now regulate national networks for these transfers.
Many use instant payments as an alternative to cash. In Brazil, cash handled 42% of transactions in 2020; by 2023, its share had fallen to 22%. As the networks have become more popular, two other important use cases have emerged: small businesses have a cheaper way to accept payments, and companies have a way to move money faster, which changes how they manage cash flow.
The first major instant payment network in Latin America was SPEI, which Banco de México launched in 2004 to replace an older interbank transfer system. For years it worked mostly as plumbing for banks moving large sums, and it didn't run 24/7 until 2015. The trend of each Latin American country building its own network didn't take off until the pandemic, when Brazil, Argentina and Peru launched their instant payment systems and adoption surged across the region.
To understand why these networks caught on so quickly, consider an example. Before Pix, a Brazilian shop owner who took a credit card could wait 30 days for the money to hit his or her account. Paying a supplier might have required a TED wire that only processed during business hours and carried a flat fee, or a boleto that took up to three days to clear. Pix offers a fast, low-fee way to send and receive payments, even in the middle of the night or on holidays.
Brazil's central bank decided to build Pix itself and required every institution with more than 500,000 accounts to join. Hundreds of smaller institutions signed on voluntarily before launch. Mandatory participation solved the oldest problem with shared payment networks: no bank wants to go first and hand its customers an easy way to leave.
The rest of the region adapted using slightly different approaches. Mexico's central bank oversees SPEI directly. Peru and Argentina left operations to private clearinghouses, then ordered wallets and banks to work with one another. Paraguay's central bank calls its system a public good, and works with providers to help maintain SPI. In every case, the central authority made interoperability a requirement, which made widespread adoption simpler.
What Instant Payments Mean for Latin American Businesses
For businesses, the appeal of instant payments comes down to cost and speed. Fees are lower for both the person paying and the merchant accepting, and money that can settle in seconds is easier to manage than money that takes days to land in an account. The rails still have tradeoffs worth knowing about, which can be especially important for business payments. Here are some things to consider for your business:
Usage costs
Several of the region's systems do not require individuals to pay any fees to send money. Paraguay’s SPI is free for individuals, and Costa Rica’s SINPE Móvil is free up to a daily limit set by each bank; Brazil's rules make Pix free for individuals in most cases. In Argentina, a customer paying a merchant by QR transfer never pays a commission. Colombian institutions can set their own Bre-B fees, though transfers between individuals have been free so far.
Businesses don't always get the same deal. Brazilian institutions are allowed to charge companies for Pix transfers. The comparison point is still favorable: before Pix, a TED wire in Brazil carried a flat fee regardless of the amount.
Merchant costs
Where the data exists, accepting an instant payment costs merchants a fraction of what accepting a card does.
Argentina's central bank capped what a merchant pays to accept a QR payment by transfer at 0.8% of the sale. If the same customer pays by credit card through the same QR code, the merchant can pay up to 1.8%. In Brazil, central bank economists found in 2022 that Pix cost merchants about 0.22% of a sale on average, compared with just over 1% for debit cards and about 2.2% for credit. Card fees have drifted down since, and the São Paulo trade federation FecomercioSP considers competition from Pix among the reasons.
Equipment for accepting payments is another cost that has gone down for business owners. An Argentine shop can take QR payments from any bank or wallet app with a single printed code and no card terminal. Colombia made Bre-B QR codes interoperable in January, on both printed codes and card terminals.
Cash flow management
In a Sebrae survey of São Paulo small businesses, speed of receipt was the top benefit cited for Pix. Money that settles the same day can be spent the same day instead of sitting with a card processor or being advanced for a fee. Instant settlement also gives businesses more room on payment terms: a company can pay a supplier on the due date, at any hour, instead of sending a wire days early to make sure it clears.
Some rails also cap transaction size, which can slightly limit flexibility in a B2B setting. Bre-B currently limits a single payment to about COP 12.1 million (about $3,800). Most Costa Rican banks cap SINPE Móvil transfers at ₡500,000 a day, roughly $1,000. Cards also keep some advantages, including installment plans and easier payments across borders.
Risks and considerations
A completed instant transfer can't be charged back the way a card payment can, which has made instant payment rails a target for scammers. Between November 2021 and June 2025, fraudsters diverted R$17.6 billion through Pix, and only R$1.4 billion went back to victims. Fraud is rare relative to total volume, at roughly five to eight cases per 100,000 Pix transactions, but the losses are large.
Brazil's central bank has responded by building its own recovery system. Since November 2025, its refund mechanism can trace stolen money past the first account it lands in. The fix carries a cost for businesses: a customer can file a fraud claim to claw back a payment the business already received, and the central bank gives businesses up to 80 days to contest a refund they believe was fraudulent. If Brazil’s attempts to curb fraud are successful, expect other regional rails to implement something similar.
Recurring collections are also less developed. In Brazil, billing customers on a schedule used to require a direct-debit agreement with each customer's bank. Pix Automático, launched in June 2025, removes that requirement for businesses whose institutions offer it. Paraguay lets merchants send customers a payment request through SPI, and Colombia's draft rules would add payroll, supplier payments and collections to Bre-B in 2027.
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How Fintechs Opened Up Latin America's Payment Networks
The other and perhaps more consequential reason for the rising popularity of instant payments is how many different ways the networks can be accessed. By and large, each new payment system opened its doors to payment companies and fintechs, letting them join on the central bank's terms, either directly or through another network participant:
- Mexico opened SPEI to non-banks in 2016, and the share of transactions handled by non-bank providers has grown sharply, with an 81.8% increase year over year. About 80 institutions connect to SPEI directly, while many fintechs reach it through third-party providers like STP.
- Peru’s central bank ordered the country’s two dominant wallets, Yape and Plin, to connect in 2023, then extended the same rules to bank apps and e-money issuers. A customer of a smaller provider can now pay someone on Yape without opening a second account.
- Argentina’s Transferencias 3.0 makes every QR code payable from any bank account or fintech wallet, so a shop with one printed code can take payments from customers of any provider.
- Colombia designed Bre-B so small cooperatives and fintechs connect through certified intermediaries rather than building their own link to the central bank, and more than 250 institutions now participate.
- Of the roughly 800 institutions on Pix, only 142 connect directly to the central bank’s settlement system; the rest plug in through a direct participant.
Access to bank transfers in Latin America used to be controlled by a handful of large banks. Now licensed payment companies can offer access to the national payment network, so their users get the same instant payments a bank's customers do.
Latin American businesses have more options for managing their money as a result. Reaching the national payment network used to mean opening an account at a traditional bank and accepting its hours, fees and paperwork. Now a business can manage its finances with a more specialized platform, one that's easier to open and built for its industry.
Brazil shows the shift most clearly: 96% of small businesses accept Pix, and nearly six in 10 say it's their main way of getting paid. More than half prefer Pix for paying suppliers, far ahead of boletos and credit cards.
Foreign companies can use these rails too. Payment processors like EBANX and dLocal connect to Pix and other local networks, so a U.S. software company can offer Pix at checkout without setting up a Brazilian subsidiary. Stripe now offers Pix to its merchants through EBANX. For a U.S. business, accepting Pix reaches customers a credit card checkout would miss: about 60 million Brazilians don’t have a credit card.
How to Get Paid on Latin American Payment Rails With a Dollar Account
The U.S. is one of the most important markets for Latin American businesses. Mexico sends roughly 80% of its exports there, Colombia 29% and Brazil 12%.
Getting access to dollars is another matter. A business in the region usually needs a U.S. entity to open a dollar account, and even then, the account may not connect to local rails, so every move between dollars and pesos or reais can carry conversion fees and delays.
The Slash Global Account gives businesses outside the U.S. a dollar account with no U.S. entity required.³ It has U.S. routing and account numbers for ACH and wires, and holds its balance in USDC, a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the dollar.⁴
In Brazil and Mexico, the Global Account connects to local rails. A Mexican business gets its own CLABE and a Brazilian business its own Pix key, so customers can pay in pesos or reais from the apps they already use. Outbound payments over Pix, SPEI and Colombia's Bre-B are rolling out soon, so businesses can hold dollars and still pay local suppliers in their own currency.
Other features of the Global Account include:
- Eligibility: Available to businesses in more than 130 countries, no U.S. entity required.
- Slash Global Card: A business card that spends in USD anywhere Visa is accepted, so your team can pay for software, ads and travel without converting currencies first. Earn up to 1% cashback on USD-settled spend.
- Invoicing and bill management: Send branded invoices that customers can pay by bank transfer or stablecoin, and keep track of what you owe by scheduling bill payments ahead of their due dates.
- Native stablecoin support: Send and receive USDC and USDT on 15 blockchain networks alongside your regular bank transfers.
- Local rails: Get paid in pesos or reais over Pix, SPEI and more, so your customers can pay you like any local business. Local-currency payouts are coming soon.
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