By Jeff Domansky, Nov 16, 2020
Uber and Latin American fintech EBANX have launched an exclusive payments partnership for processing Brazil’s new instant payments system Pix.
Brazilians will be able to pay for their Uber rides and Uber Eats orders with Pix and EBANX through its EBANX Pagamentos Ltda, which offers local payment processing in Brazil and will be Uber’s exclusive partner processing these payments.
This is one more step in the growing partnership between the two companies in Latin America. The partnership between Uber and EBANX for payments with Pix adds to the existing integration of the two companies for Uber Cash in Brazil, which started in 2019.
“With the arrival of Pix and given the importance of the Brazilian market for Uber, we want to offer a new payment experience to our millions of users that is aligned with the objective to always provide and think of ways to make life easier through technology. Pix will play an important role as it will be a more modern payment option in our platform and EBANX will give us the necessary tools for processing these payments safely,” said Claudia Woods, Uber Brazil General Manager.
As of Monday (Nov 16), users in Brazil can use Pix to get Uber Cash and pay for orders with the new payment method directly at Uber Eats as the feature is introduced during the next few weeks.
“We truly believe that Pix will be a milestone of financial inclusion in Brazil, bringing millions of Brazilians into the digital economy. We are happy to partner with Uber for this new payment method, offering more options for Brazilians to enjoy their services and addressing Uber’s needs of payments, localization, and good user experience through our solutions,” said Henrik Nilsmo, CCO of EBANX.
Pix will shake up payments in Brazil
Launching today during a virtual news conference, Pix lets consumers and businesses make money transfers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with no debit or credit cards required and free of charge for individuals.
“Huge changes are underway in payments. Society demands something that is fast, cheap, safe, transparent, and open,” Banco Central do Brasil President Roberto Campos Neto said. He said the Central Bank is also in discussions with big tech companies including Facebook and Google about entering the payments market in Brazil.
“WhatsApp will start doing P2P soon. I have talked a lot with their CEO, we are making good progress. He has told me that the process (with us) was faster than in other countries,” Campos Neto said.
In prelaunch testing between Nov 3-15, the central bank said more than 71 million Pix aliases had been registered, and more than 1.9 million transactions carried out.
The central bank hopes Pix will bring more competition financial services in Brazil, where the top five lenders including Itau Unibanco Holding SA and Banco Santander Brasil SA, control an estimated 80% of total assets and deposits.
In a Reuters report, consultants Oliver Wyman said by 2030, it expects Pix will control an estimated 22% of electronic payments in Brazil which last year totaled 1.8 trillion reais ($382 billion) in debit and credit card transactions.
EBANX operates in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Uruguay, launching in in 2012 to bridge the access gap between Latin Americans and international websites. The fintech company now offers over 100 Latin American local payment options to global merchants and has already helped over 70 million people access global services and products.
Among EBANX’s more than 1,000 merchant partners in Latin America are AliExpress, Wish, Uber, Pipedrive, Airbnb, and Spotify.
Uber looks very focused on its goal of changing how people, food, and things move through cities, including how they pay for new services digitally in Brazil and around the world.
You can read more about Brazil’s Pix payments announcement at Reuters, and the Banco Central do Brasil website.
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