Comment by Art9681
2 months ago
Does the Central Bank of Brazil publish data on the cost of running the network and how it is funded? Or is there a hidden tax that eventually makes its way to the customer in order to keep it going? Nothing is totally free. Who pays for the infrastructure costs, not to mention the legion of humans that it surely takes to maintain the network? Pretty sure that no matter what is published publicly, someone is paying for it, and that cost is being passed around the logistics chain and ends up on the prices of the products you buy. Sure, it may be much cheaper, but it's not totally free.
It costs up to ~$9m per year, processing 63 billion transactions per year: https://oglobo.globo.com/economia/noticia/2024/10/03/bc-gast...
Banks pay a small fee (less than a cent) per batch of transactions.
Pix is free for natural persons and individual entrepreneurs. For businesses, receiving is free, but they pay a fee to send money[0], this can vary from one institution to another.
[0] https://www.contabilizei.com.br/contabilizei-responde/taxa-p...
If the central bank offers it, it would be the equivalent to cash. Cash is also expensive to maintain and issue. Do you ask all the same questions as who pays for cash?