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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PIX (BRAZIL)

Unknown Pix key: a Brazilian payment that fails up front

Trigger: The Pix key does not resolve through the DICT directory to a valid account.

Contributor Shubham Mathure

What operations sees first: The payment stops before any debit; the payer is told the Pix key could not be found.

WHERE IS THE MONEY?

Never left Riya's account — the Pix key never resolved.

DID SETTLEMENT HAPPEN?

No settlement; the payment failed at key resolution.

WHO ACTS NEXT?

Riya Riya checks the exact Pix key with Arjun (or scans his QR) and retries.

PLAY THE EXCEPTION

Trigger: The Pix key Riya entered is not registered in DICT (a typo, or the key was never claimed), so the directory cannot return an account.

STEP 1 / 4MESSAGE

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 4: 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. 03 · EXCEPTION PATHMessage
    DICT returns no account for the keyPix / DICT directory → Bank Alfa (payer PSP)
  4. 04 · EXCEPTION PATHMessage
    Riya is told the key was not foundBank Alfa (payer PSP) → Riya (payer)
  5. OUTCOME
    Funds
    Untouched — Riya was never debited because addressing failed first.
    Settlement
    No settlement occurred; the SPI was never asked to settle anything.
    Who acts next
    Riya (payer) — Riya re-checks Arjun's Pix key (or asks him for it again) and retries the payment.
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. 03 · EXCEPTION PATHMessage
    DICT returns no account for the keyPix / DICT directory → Bank Alfa (payer PSP)

    The directory answers that the key is not registered. Because addressing failed, there is nothing to pay to — the payment stops before any money moves.

  4. 04 · EXCEPTION PATHMessage
    Riya is told the key was not foundBank Alfa (payer PSP) → Riya (payer)

    Bank Alfa shows Riya that the Pix key could not be resolved, so she can check the number and try again. No debit was ever booked.

  5. OUTCOME
    Funds
    Untouched — Riya was never debited because addressing failed first.
    Settlement
    No settlement occurred; the SPI was never asked to settle anything.
    Who acts next
    Riya (payer) — Riya re-checks Arjun's Pix key (or asks him for it again) and retries the payment.

THE TIMELINE

  1. 01Riya
    Enters Arjun's Pix key (his phone number) to pay BRL 150.00 — no account number shared.
  2. 02Pix / DICT directory
    Cannot resolve the Pix key to a registered account and stops the payment.

    The DICT directory maps a Pix key to an account; an unregistered key has nothing behind it.

  3. 03Bank Alfa
    Never debits Riya; her app shows the Pix key could not be found.

Resolution: Pix resolves the key through DICT before authorising. An unregistered key fails the payment up front, so there is no debit and nothing settles over the SPI.

LEARN THE CONCEPTS

Sources for this scenario2
  1. Official requirement

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

    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: Single-cycle teaching model; participant-specific handling and exact timings vary.

    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.