'Trump wants to end Pix to benefit US credit card companies', denounces Lindbergh.
US investigation into Pix exposes attempt to protect credit card giants, says Lindbergh Farias.
247 - The PT leader in the Chamber of Deputies, Lindbergh Farias (RJ), accused the President of the United States, Donald Trump, on Wednesday (16) of trying to “end Pix” to protect the interests of American credit card operators, such as Visa and Mastercard. The statement was made on social media, after the revelation that the US Department of Commerce (USTR) opened an investigation against the Central Bank of Brazil.
According to the congressman, the American offensive is an attempt to sabotage the achievements of the Brazilian people. “Trump wants to end Pix [Brazil's instant payment system] to benefit American credit card companies. It seems the attempt to harm our country and the Brazilian people with sanctions went very wrong, didn't it, Bolsonaros?” wrote Lindbergh. He also classified Bolsonaro supporters as “traitorous coup plotters” and emphasized: “We are here to defend Brazil's sovereignty and the achievements we produce. Bolsotrump against Pix.”
The complaint comes amid an investigation conducted by the United States government into possible "unfair barriers" imposed by the Central Bank on WhatsApp Pay's entry into the Brazilian market. This was revealed by journalist Marina Barbosa in a column published on the portal. UOLThe focus of the investigation is the Central Bank's decision in 2020 to immediately suspend the payment service of Meta — owner of WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram — just days after its official announcement in Brazil.
WhatsApp Pay was launched in June 2020, even before Pix, which was initially scheduled to debut in November of that year. However, after the announcement of Meta's service, the Central Bank and the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade) ordered its suspension, citing risks to competition and the stability of the financial system.
At the time, the Brazilian monetary authority justified the measure by stating that allowing WhatsApp Pay could cause "irreparable damage to the Brazilian payment system," especially regarding competition, efficiency, and privacy. However, it denied that it was protecting the newly created Pix system or the interests of large banks.
The fact is that, with the move by the American Big Tech company, the Central Bank decided to bring forward the implementation of Pix, which ended up being launched in August 2020. The release of WhatsApp Pay, on the other hand, was slow and restricted: sending money between individuals was only authorized in March 2021, while payments to commercial establishments were only released two years later, in March 2023.
The US Department of Commerce's initiative against Brazil is based on the argument that the Central Bank's actions have unbalanced the competitive environment, favoring Pix at the expense of WhatsApp Pay. The argument is that both services operate through "network economies"—a model in which the first to arrive tends to dominate the market by connecting consumers and service providers more efficiently.
According to lawyer Luciano Timm, former national consumer secretary and current director of the Brazilian Association for Economic Freedom, the way the Central Bank conducted the process ended up opening the door to international challenges.
The clash between Pix and WhatsApp Pay reveals a broader dispute: control over the billion-dollar digital payments market. With the popularization of Pix, Brazil drastically reduced the use of credit and debit cards—directly impacting the revenues of international operators. The US offensive seeks to rebalance this game, even at the cost of Brazilian regulatory sovereignty.
By reacting firmly to Trump's attacks, Lindbergh echoed the sentiment in defense of the model developed locally by technicians from the Central Bank. "Those who created Pix were employees of the Central Bank of Brazil!", the congressman pointed out. The attempt to associate the creation of the system with Jair Bolsonaro—repeated several times during his term—was also the target of criticism. "Bolsonaro spent years boasting about a lie," declared the Workers' Party member.
