Today, we talk about Brazil’s massive financial inclusion project. What the recent heatwave tells us about environmental changes. And what you should know in the 2020 election.
Covid-19 sped up massive financial inclusion project in Brazil
The Brazilian Central Bank has authorized Brazilians to sign up for PIX, an upcoming instant payment system set to be rolled out on November 16. Within two days, over 10.1 million individual “keys” (IDs on the system) were created.
Why it matters. PIX is part of the Central Bank’s efforts to digitize the Brazilian economy — a process that has been magnified by the pandemic. Back in March, when the coronavirus emergency salary was approved in Congress, the government was met with a major challenge: it had to pay out aid to massive amounts of informal workers and the unemployed, and over 45 million Brazilians didn’t have a bank account.
- State-owned bank Caixa created 97 million digital savings accounts. According to Caixa CEO Pedro Guimarães, between one-third and 40 percent of all beneficiaries of the aid program did not have any access to banking services before that.
Projections. Brazil’s instant payments system is tipped to reach 20 million users in its first year and could...