GLOBAL PAYMENTS KNOWLEDGEISO 20022 / SWIFT / SEPA / MT / MX
PAYMENTSSIGNAL

The interactive academy for the standards, messages, and rails that move money.

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Brazil Pix — instant payment

Riya pays Arjun in seconds using only his Pix key. The DICT directory resolves the key to his account, and the SPI settles the payment individually in central bank money — final and irrevocable, around the clock, with no fees.

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Contributor Shubham Mathure

STEP 1 / 5MESSAGE

Riya enters Arjun's Pix key

Riya (payer) → Bank Alfa (payer PSP)

Riya types Arjun's phone number as his Pix key and never has to know or share his account number. Pix works 24 hours a day, every day, with no fee to send.

Step 1 of 5: Riya enters Arjun's Pix key

  1. 01Message
    Riya enters Arjun's Pix keyRiya (payer) → Bank Alfa (payer PSP)
  2. 02Message
    The DICT directory resolves the Pix keyBank Alfa (payer PSP) → Pix / DICT directory
  3. 03Posting
    Bank Alfa debits RiyaBank Alfa (payer PSP)
  4. 04Settlement
    The SPI settles the payment in central bank moneyBank Alfa (payer PSP) → Nordbank (payee PSP)
  5. 05Posting
    Nordbank credits ArjunNordbank (payee PSP)
MESSAGECLEARING OBLIGATIONSETTLEMENTPOSTING
Full step-by-step text (works without JavaScript)
  1. 01Message
    Riya enters Arjun's Pix keyRiya (payer) → Bank Alfa (payer PSP)

    Riya types Arjun's phone number as his Pix key and never has to know or share his account number. Pix works 24 hours a day, every day, with no fee to send.

  2. 02Message
    The DICT directory resolves the Pix keyBank Alfa (payer PSP) → Pix / DICT directory

    Bank Alfa asks the DICT directory (the Transaction Accounts Identifier Directory) which account a Pix key points to. DICT answers with Arjun's account at Nordbank.

  3. 03Posting
    Bank Alfa debits RiyaBank Alfa (payer PSP)

    Bank Alfa books the debit on Riya's account on its own ledger, so the funds are committed before the payment is submitted to the central bank's system.

    • DR Riya's account at Bank Alfa — BRL 150.00
  4. 04Settlement
    The SPI settles the payment in central bank moneyBank Alfa (payer PSP) → Nordbank (payee PSP)

    The payment is submitted to the SPI (Instant Payment System), an RTGS operated by the BCB. It settles this one transfer individually, one-to-one, in central bank money — final and irrevocable, in about three seconds on average.

    • DR Bank Alfa settlement account at the BCB — BRL 150.00
    • CR Nordbank settlement account at the BCB — BRL 150.00
  5. 05Posting
    Nordbank credits ArjunNordbank (payee PSP)

    Once settlement is final, Nordbank books the credit to Arjun's account. He can spend the money immediately, at any time of day.

    • CR Arjun's account at Nordbank — BRL 150.00

What this simplifies: The DICT lookup and the messages exchanged with the Banco Central do Brasil are shown as single steps; fraud controls, limits, and the Pix refund mechanism are omitted.

LEARN THE CONCEPTS BEHIND THIS FLOW

Sources for this flow2
  1. Official requirement

    Pix, the Instant Payment System (SPI) and the Reserve Transfer System (STR) ↗ — Banco Central do Brasil

    Describes Pix, the instant payment platform created and managed by the Banco Central do Brasil: 24/7 real transfers addressed by a Pix key (phone, email, tax ID or random string) resolved through the DICT directory, settled individually and one-to-one, final and irrevocable, over the Instant Payment System (SPI), an RTGS available every day; and the STR (Reserve Transfer System), Brazils wholesale RTGS for interbank reserve transfers. · Checked 2026-07-14

    Pix settles over the SPI (RTGS) in about three seconds; the STR is the wholesale reserve-transfer RTGS operated by the BCB.

  2. Simplified educational illustration

    Payments Signal editorial teaching models — Payments Signal

    This site's own simplified teaching models. · Checked 2026-07-12

    What this simplifies: Shows one payment settling on its own over the SPI; the DICT lookup and BCB message exchanges are drawn as single steps, and anti-fraud and refund mechanisms are omitted.

    Used wherever diagrams, scenarios, figures, or example values are didactic constructions rather than sourced facts; every such use carries a simplifications disclosure. All people, companies, banks, and list entries in examples are fictional.