PagBrasil extends Pix to eight countries and plans a QR bridge into Portugal's MB WAY

PagBrasil said Pix is now available for Brazilian consumers in eight countries: Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, the United States, Portugal, Spain and France. Pix has been available in Portugal since the end of 2024 and has since spread across several retail sectors. PagBrasil plans to launch RoamingPay by the end of 2026, connecting regional payment systems through QR codes so that Brazilian consumers can pay with Pix at merchants that only offer MB WAY or ATM-linked payment options in Portugal.

If a Brazilian wallet can settle against an MB WAY QR code without the merchant changing anything, the acceptance decision moves from the merchant to the QR standard, and the domestic scheme becomes a rail others ride rather than a closed network. For SIBS that is both a tourism-revenue opportunity and a precedent: the same bridge logic applies to any scheme that wants inbound reach into Portugal or Spain without signing merchants.

It is small in volume today and structurally interesting, which is why it belongs in the file rather than in the headlines.

Whether SIBS confirms the MB WAY side of the RoamingPay bridge and on what commercial terms, and whether Bizum in Spain follows with a comparable inbound arrangement.

• thepaypers.com