[Xunjin]

Context is important, the Brazil's President said that about USA investigations with allegations that Pix is a "unfair business practices"[0] he is not at all saying that Pix is "100% powered by Brazil", in his political proselytism he does make clear that Brazil and USA are partners by centuries and should keep being.

0. https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/articles/cm2vrnq17vdo

[reese_john]

Please, he literally went on national TV on Brazil’s Independence day to claim that

“We will defend PIX from any attempt at privatization. PIX belongs to Brazil, it's public, free, and will remain so.”

Lula has been historically hostile to the US for ideological reasons.

He’s done plenty to undermine that relation, stemming from attacking the dollar dominance, ignoring Iran sanctions, to indirectly financing the Ukraine war by becoming the largest buyer of cheap Russian oil — and that’s why we have those investigations going on

[dormento]

Most of these could could be put another way as protecting sovereignty (and that would be the most charitable interpretation IMHO). Examples:

- "being hostile for ideological reasons" becomes entirely warranted when you consider the many CIA regime-change operations in the past.

- "Undermining the relation" (with the US) is just being smart about how much dependency one has on external factors, like exchange rates and infrastructure.

- The "investigations" are political posturing. PIX is not "unfair business practice", its a modern, cheap, state-of-the-art payments system that is better than what private businesses like MasterCard and Visa are willing to offer. I can think of plenty of ways they could offer actual value to customers so they can still be relevant. The fact that they don't, and chose to try and lobby against it tells me that its a lot cheaper to just buy some politicians and manufacture some controversy instead.

[reese_john]

> The "investigations" are political posturing. PIX is not "unfair business practice"

Agree

> its a modern, cheap, state-of-the-art payments system that is better than what private businesses like MasterCard and Visa are willing to offer. I can think of plenty of ways they could offer actual value to customers so they can still be relevant.

This is a common misconception. Pix is a form of bank transfer, not a full blown payment infra like MC/Visa. They are different products, Pix doesn't make credit cards irrelevant.

Per BCB statistics: In 2020, before Pix implementation, credit cards accounted for 2% of the monthly BRL volume transacted (~ 200M BRL)

As of 2025Q4: credit cards still accounted .... for the same 2% (~ 800M BRL)

The main question is: historically, why haven't credit cards been more popular in Brazil, even before Pix?

You'll find your answer looking at structural issues (high interest, delinquency rates, bad credit offerings ...), not technical concerns

[gota]

> Lula has been historically hostile to the US for ideological reasons.

Care to elaborate and give examples?