The Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) is exploring a bold new frontier for its flagship instant payment system: a direct interconnection with Europe’s TIPS (Trans-European Automated Payment System), according to reporting by Folha de S.Paulo. If realized, the move would allow Brazilians and Europeans to send money across continents in seconds, with the potential to transform cross-border remittances and travel spending.
Early-Stage Talks with the ECB
Discussions between the BCB and the European Central Bank, which oversees TIPS, are still in their initial phase. Both institutions are expected to complete legal, technical, operational and security analyses by the end of September, a crucial step toward determining whether the two systems can be interoperable.
No official timeline has been announced, but internal planning suggests a phased approach: deeper feasibility studies between October 2026 and March 2027, followed by a preliminary implementation phase starting in April 2027 and running through June 2028. A pilot project could begin around that latter date, pending the outcome of the earlier analyses.
How It Would Work
The envisioned integration would let individuals and businesses in Brazil and the European Union make instant transfers to one another, with funds available in the recipient’s local currency within seconds. For travelers, the experience could be seamless: a tourist in Europe, for example, could scan a Pix QR code at a merchant’s point of sale, and the transaction would automatically route through TIPS, converting reais to euros in real time.
Conversely, a European visitor in Brazil could pay with their own instant payment app, which would communicate with Pix via the interlinked infrastructure.
Benefits: Speed, Simplicity and Lower Costs
Today, cross-border transfers between Brazil and Europe typically involve multiple intermediaries, higher fees and delays of hours or days. A Pix–TIPS link would cut much of that friction:
- Speed: Settlement in seconds rather than hours or days
- Simplicity: Fewer steps and documents required for remittances
- Transparency: Clearer exchange rates and fees at the point of transaction
- Accessibility: Wider reach for both individuals and small businesses
While costs would not be eliminated entirely, experts quoted by Folha expect any fees to be substantially lower than current correspondent-banking charges.
No Official Confirmation Yet
The BCB has not publicly confirmed the TIPS integration plan. In its Pix Management Report 2023–2025, published in August 2026, the bank acknowledged for the first time that it is actively evaluating interconnections with instant payment systems in other jurisdictions.
“The BCB is assessing the interconnection of Pix with instant payment systems in other jurisdictions. Both bilateral interconnections and participation in multilateral hubs are under discussion,” the report states. “Such interconnections would enable international remittances and purchase transactions with funds made available in local currency within a few seconds. Linking instant payment systems has the potential to reduce fees, increase speed, broaden access and improve transparency in cross-border transactions.”
A Global Trend
TIPS, launched by the ECB in 2018, already processes millions of instant euro transfers daily across the EU’s Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). Brazil’s move mirrors a broader global trend: central banks in Singapore, Australia, the UK and several Middle Eastern countries are also building cross-border instant payment links.
If the Pix–TIPS corridor materializes, Brazil would join the vanguard of countries turning domestic payment rails into international bridges — a development that could reshape how nearly 215 million Brazilians and 450 million Europeans move money across borders.
Source: Technoblog
