Brazil’s Shrinking Central Bank Stokes Worries Over Financial Supervision

Little more than five years ago, staff at Brazil’s central bank pulled out all the stops in the midst of the pandemic to construct a digital-payments system that would give their compatriots access to free and instant money transfers.

The app, Pix, was the result of public servants who set aside stress over Covid, worked overtime and slogged through weekends, relying on energy drinks to keep them going as they battled to get the system up and running. Their efforts paid off — Pix was an instant success, and in less than a year, some 110 million Brazilians had used it. It now serves as a model for payments systems around the world.