With Pix, Cash Circulation Decreased by R$40 Billion – Economy

The circulation of forty billion riyals in cash in the country stopped from January to October of this year, a decrease of 10.5% compared to the end of last year, a year after the pixinstant payment system central bank Which fell into the Brazilian taste. If this money is in the denomination of 100 Brazilian reals, then it will be possible to travel around the world in one and a half trips.

With a massive adhesion to families and businesses, Pix – which turns its year on next Tuesday – already has nearly 350 million registered individual keys and moves more than R$ 550 billion per month, in about one billion transactions.

who are they , Director of Innovation, Products and Services at the Brazilian Confederation of Banks (Vibraban), Leandro Villan, you believe that between 80% and 90% have exchanged previously performed operations for cash.

This is because the absolute drop in transactions via TED between November 2020 and September 2021 (192 million to 94 million) and DOC or check (45 million to 25 million) is negligible compared to the impressive growth in the number of transactions with Pix, from 34 million to 1 billion. Expansion rate is 2959%.

“Pix can only replace cash transactions. If this data is maintained over time, it will be one of the largest financial inclusion programs that we know of,” assesses Phelan. Verapan’s director notes that the comparison with last year is still not perfect, as the economy was affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

To meet the family’s demand for money during the pandemic, BC announced in September 2020 production of R$450 million in $200 bills, with an estimated production cost of R$325 per thousand banknotes. There was no deadline to adapt the mechanism currency house To craft a bill of more than R$100, leaving the nicknamed wolf in the same format as the R$20 banknote for the golden lion tamarin.

The urgency was due to the emergency aid of R$600 per month for some 68 million people, which led to a race to withdraw resources. A little more than a year later, a large part of the population did not have a wolf in their hands. The latest data from BC shows that only R$84.6 million of the $200 bill is already in circulation, with R$16.9 billion.

The country’s issued currency jumped 48.2% in the 12 months to August last year – on the eve of the launch of the new banknote. Now, however, there is already a reversal of that trajectory, with a 7.1% decline in physical money in the 12 months through October of this year, even as the government renews aid payments and as the economy recovers after the pandemic.

BC argues that the use of paper money this year is only due to historical patterns after an atypical 2020 year. “We still do not have studies linking or substantiating the two events (decreased use of fiat money and Pix),” the device said in a note.

prophecy.

Bruno Magrani, CEO, Zetta Association of Digital Financial Services Companies, assessed that the popularization of fintech is associated with a decline in demand for fiat money in recent years, as fintech companies have increased the range of products and services. Fintech companies mostly use electronic money, via cards and transfers, without dealing with cash.

“Print money has its days numbered, and it should become a museum piece,” says the executive. “The transition from paper money to digital money leads to many efficiencies, such as the cost of printing and distribution.”

For Phelan, of Viraban, Pix is ​​another step on a long road to digitizing financial services, the result of investments in the banking sector in the past 20 years, which should only go deeper. In 2020, for the first time, banking transactions carried out on mobile applications exceeded more than half of the total, according to a survey by Febraban. With the Internet banking channel, they account for 67% of transactions.

He says Executive Director of the National Confederation of Store Leaders (CNDL), Daniel Sakamoto. “It is fast, easy and no cost. The store owner likes it very much, because he does not pay fees, gets paid on time and does not need to manage paper money in the cash register.”

According to a study conducted by the CNDL with Sebrae, two-thirds of Brazilians have changed their payment habits under the pandemic. Of those, 44.6% started using more wire transfers. “Physical currency is still among the biggest preferences of Brazilians who have their money in their pockets. But, little by little, Pix is ​​gaining a place among this population,” says Sakamoto. “Our daily message is for retailers, even without significant technology investments, to digitize their operations to serve these customers.”