Brazil’s financial innovation journey—anchored by the Central Bank’s PIX system and amplified by Visa’s recent launch of Visa Conecta—has become a global case study in how Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and private sector agility can co-create financial transformation. For South Africa, the lesson is clear: building a cohesive digital infrastructure ecosystem requires bold state-led innovation paired with policy frameworks that invite market participation, not competition.
PIX as a Model DPI: Programmable, Open, Mandatory
At its core, PIX is Brazil’s real-time payments system. But it is more than just a faster payments mechanism—it is programmable, inclusive, and transformative. Introduced by Banco Central do Brasil in 2020, PIX was rolled out with three strategic principles: mandatory participation by financial institutions, zero-cost usage for consumers, and interoperability across the banking and fintech ecosystem.
PIX was not built in response to market demand, but rather to shape a new market reality. It was a digital infrastructure bet: that if you create a universal, real-time, low-cost payment system, innovation would emerge organically around it. The bet paid off. PIX now processes more daily transactions than credit and debit cards combined in Brazil. And crucially, it has reached the underserved, with usage soaring among the unbanked and informal workers.
Visa Conecta: The Private Sector Layers on Top
Visa Conecta—Visa’s newly formed payment initiation subsidiary in Brazil—is not a PIX partner in the formal sense, but it is a sign of the ecosystem's maturity. Leveraging PIX’s new API-driven no-redirect flows, Visa Conecta allows merchants to integrate one-click PIX payments directly into their e-commerce experiences. No scanning QR codes. No switching apps. No friction.
What makes this significant is not the user interface, but the architectural shift it represents. Visa has become a Payment Initiation Provider under Brazil’s open finance framework. This means they do not hold customer funds, but rather initiate secure transactions through public APIs standardized by the central bank. In short, the state built the rails, and Visa is building trains that ride on them.
This modular architecture is what makes DPI a platform, not a product. The government owns the infrastructure, sets the rules, and enforces openness. Private actors innovate on top—bringing scale, UX excellence, and commercial use cases.
The Gap in South Africa’s Digital Payments Landscape
South Africa is not without its own DPI efforts. The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) oversees a robust National Payment System (NPS), and the recent rollout of PayShap is a step toward real-time retail payments. But South Africa’s approach remains fragmented, cautious, and, in many cases, closed.
PayShap, for instance, is not universally adopted by banks or mobile money providers. There is no legal obligation to participate, which hinders network effects. Fees remain a barrier to usage for low-income groups. More importantly, there is no open finance framework that compels data sharing or standardizes payment initiation rights.
As a result, private innovation has been stifled. Unlike Brazil, South Africa lacks a regulatory path for companies like Visa, MTN, Yoco, or Acalytica to plug into the core rails and offer frictionless, value-added services on top of PayShap.
What South Africa Can Learn—and Do Now
The Brazilian example suggests that digital infrastructure must be seen not as a service, but as a programmable layer of the economy. This means:
- Mandating participation in real-time payment systems like PayShap for all licensed financial institutions and digital wallets.
- Legislating open finance frameworks that define roles like Payment Initiation Providers and enforce standardized, secure APIs.
- Investing in interoperability between payment systems, digital identity platforms, and government services like SASSA or UIF.
- Incentivizing private sector innovation through sandboxes, tax incentives, and public-private infrastructure co-investment.
- Positioning DPI as economic policy, not just fintech regulation—framing it as critical infrastructure akin to roads or electricity.
Visa Conecta did not emerge in a vacuum. It emerged because Brazil’s central bank reimagined its role—not just as a regulator, but as an infrastructure provider. South Africa has the institutional strength and technical capacity to follow suit. What it needs now is a policy posture that embraces openness, prioritizes inclusion, and invites the market to build on top of what the state enables.
This is not merely about payments. It is about building the foundation of a digital economy that is inclusive, frictionless, and resilient. The future is not about public or private. It is about infrastructure and interface—each doing what they do best.
South Africa can, and must, act now to ensure that it does not just digitize its economy, but transforms it. Brazil has shown the way. The next move is ours.
