Recently, a series of continuous improvements that the Central Bank has been making came into force to contain adverse scenarios of financial scams in Pix transfers, as well as requiring financial institutions to implement risk management solutions against fraud. Among the changes, limits for transfers on unregistered devices and new modalities.
“These are actions proposed by the Central Bank to mitigate vulnerabilities, from education, in which banks must bring instructions or campaigns that generate information to the population to prevent theft, fraud and improper transfers, to checking the 'fraud marking' every six months. ' about account misuse”, comments Samara Rodrigues de Lima, digital products manager at Topaz, one of the largest technology companies specializing in digital financial solutions in the world and a PSTI (Information Technology Service Provider) approved by the B.C.
Another new feature is automatic Pix, an analogy to automatic debit, with implementation scheduled for June 2025. By that date, financial institutions need to be prepared, validated and with capacity tests, for the entry of this product. The recurring scheduled Pix is part of the automatic Pix mechanism, which consists of scheduling a fixed amount for payment that is recurring.
Samara explains that banks will no longer need to enter into agreements with consumer account providers, such as energy, water and gas through automatic Pix, which also represents an advantage for the end customer, who benefits from deciding and allowing settlement is done in this way, in addition to mitigating default.
PIX NFC is already possible and is in use by some institutions, however, it is not regulated by BACEN. The regulation will introduce more participants in Open Finance, as the user will need to associate their banking details with a digital wallet. “From the point of view of the financial market, this mechanism is inherent to Open Finance. As we promote greater adherence to Open Finance, we increasingly empower ordinary citizens like us to own their data”, says the expert.
Security for institutions
The entire market that operates within the scope of Pix (between banks and payment institutions) now has new rules, as a security mechanism for information queries in the Central Bank's key base, which are managed to prevent data leakage.
“BACEN not only looked at the citizen when announcing the new rules, but also took care of every step, so that a Pix transaction is increasingly secure and more resilient to information leaks, credential theft, among other issues ”, says Samara. She explains that the BC has increasingly required financial institutions to have robust anti-fraud processes. “This is a differentiator for our Topaz customers, as we have the anti-fraud solution used by 90% of the Brazilian market and by all large banks, the SecureJourneya complete fraud and money laundering prevention suite that guarantees the necessary protection in transactions and operational security – and here is an opportunity for the market to adapt to this regulatory solution”, confirms the expert.
The Central Bank indicates that the containment of fraud and the impacts that an illicit act causes on the financial market are the responsibility of the financial institutions involved. “It is essential to have a solution along these lines, with robust mechanisms that detect atypical operations, especially for products such as scheduled Pix and automatic Pix. We increasingly need to take care of these issues with great diligence.”
Considerations for 2025
Next year, automatic Pix will be implemented, which should move not only financial settlement, but the entire receivables chain. “As Topaz, we are well ahead of these topics, our systems are adapted and customers can now start testing some automatic Pix features. This new window of communication between BACEN and the market is already happening, which means we can anticipate it as much as possible. Our Pix solution has a difference, as every automatic payment recurrence is controlled. So, the customer does not need to purchase new modules within the market to control this recurrence”, says Samara.
Topaz already has all issues regarding the NFC feature of cell phones under consultation with the Central Bank to adapt to regulatory and technological changes, to improve user agility when making payments. “We hope that, by the end of 2025, this modality will be available, as it is another facility”.
For 2025, the BC also has, within its agenda, negotiations to improve processes, such as, for example, the return of a Pix made incorrectly or that was made due to fraud.
