2023 was a year full of innovation in the Brazilian banking system, as Banco Central do Brasil is on a mission to make Brazil more digital and tokenized.

Bacen will push an agenda to improve instant payment rails (PIX), open finance, and asset tokenization through the construction of the digital equivalent of the real, Drex.

To give it some color, here is a quick list of what happened last year that I think will shape the next couple of years to come.

PIX: With the concept validated, the next steps in the roadmap are: ITP, PIX Parcelado, PIX Automático, PIX Off Line, and PIX on International Transactions.

Open Finance: 2023 was the year OF completed a watershed moment in its path; it had more than 40 million consents and about 30 million users, according to Bacen.

ITP, or Iniciador de Transações de Pagamento, allows shoppers to make online purchases through PIX without having to login to their bank account to confirm the transaction.

DREX: Drex is a new format that represents Brazil’s official money, the Real, in a completely digital format and is held in a virtual system (blockchain), with the same value as the banknote.

The central bank’s main goals are financial inclusion, competitiveness, transparency, financial education, sustainability, and excellence.

And Brazil is on track to making it happen.