Brazil PI & electronic-money issuer pathways.
Structure a payment business for Brazil through the appropriate payment-institution modalities, with support for company formation, BCB authorisation readiness, AML/KYC, governance, technology controls, Pix planning, and operational onboarding.
“PI” and “EMI” describe different parts of the product architecture.
In Brazil, electronic-money issuance is a modality within the payment-institution framework. The correct structure depends on whether the business manages prepaid payment accounts, issues postpaid instruments, acquires merchants, initiates payments, or combines multiple functions.
Payment Institution
A broader regulated category covering specific payment activities. Depending on the model, the institution may manage payment accounts, issue instruments, acquire merchants, facilitate cash-in/cash-out, or provide other authorised payment services.
Issuer of electronic money
Commonly associated with prepaid payment accounts and wallet structures in which funds are deposited before use. The model requires safeguarding, reconciliations, account controls, customer transparency, and operational resilience.
Payment infrastructure for consumers, merchants, platforms, and cross-border groups.
The legal label follows the actual account, instrument, acceptance, settlement, and funds-flow design.
Digital wallets & payment accounts
Consumer or business wallets, prepaid balances, cash-in/cash-out, transfers, bill payments, and account management.
Merchant acquiring
Merchant onboarding, payment acceptance, settlement, card or alternative-payment processing, and commercial-establishment relationships.
Card & payment-instrument programmes
Prepaid or postpaid instruments, programme management, transaction controls, customer servicing, and scheme relationships.
Transfers & payment initiation
Peer-to-peer movement, account-to-account payments, checkout flows, payment initiation, and integration with transactional-account providers.
Pix-connected products
Instant-payment use cases, QR or checkout integration, collections, disbursements, merchant acceptance, and operational participation planning.
Build the payment institution behind the interface.
The authorisation workstream needs to demonstrate that governance, safeguarding, compliance, technology, and operations can support the proposed scale and risk profile.
Scope & modality analysis
Map payment accounts, instruments, acquiring, initiation, transfers, settlement, customer funds, merchants, and scheme participation.
Governance & ownership
Brazilian company structure, foreign shareholder workstream, accountable management, policies, committees, and control ownership.
AML/KYC & fraud
Onboarding, beneficial ownership, transaction monitoring, fraud prevention, sanctions, investigations, reporting, and retention.
Funds safeguarding
Customer-fund treatment, segregation, reconciliation, settlement, liquidity, withdrawal, dispute, and insolvency-aware procedures.
Technology & cybersecurity
Architecture, access controls, cloud and outsourcing governance, incident response, logging, resilience, recovery, and change control.
Operational readiness
Banking and payment partners, scheme or Pix planning, customer support, complaints, reporting, accounting, and go-live controls.
A private project scope built around your launch model.
No public package or fixed-price assumptions are used. The project is scoped after the funds flow, modalities, ownership, technology, and target operating model are understood.
Corporate & shareholder workstream
- Brazilian entity formation coordination
- Foreign shareholder documentation
- CNPJ-related workstreams
- Corporate records and agreements
- Governance and accountable roles
Authorisation-readiness workstream
- PI modality and activity mapping
- Business and operating plan
- Financial and volume assumptions
- Application document architecture
- BCB-facing process coordination
Compliance & operational framework
- AML/KYC and fraud-control suite
- Customer-fund safeguarding design
- Risk and internal-control framework
- Cybersecurity and outsourcing controls
- Complaints and consumer processes
Launch & continuity support
- Banking and payment-partner coordination
- Pix and scheme-readiness planning
- Operational implementation checklist
- Reporting and evidence cadence
- Ongoing maintenance coordination
A four-stage path for most PI and e-money projects.
Product and funds-flow mapping
Classify the accounts, instruments, merchants, transfers, funds custody, settlement, users, and technology relationships.
Entity, ownership & governance
Establish the Brazilian structure, shareholder file, management roles, governance bodies, and compliance ownership.
Authorisation and control build
Prepare the operating plan, AML/KYC, safeguarding, risk, technology, consumer, financial, and evidence frameworks.
Partner onboarding & launch readiness
Coordinate integrations, reporting, internal adoption, operational testing, and continuity arrangements.
Brazil PI and EMI questions.
Brazil uses the payment-institution framework with defined modalities. Issuing electronic money is one of those modalities, typically linked to prepaid payment accounts and wallet structures. The project may combine it with other authorised payment activities.
Depending on the product, the analysis may cover electronic-money issuance, postpaid payment-instrument issuance, merchant acquiring, payment initiation, and other payment services permitted under the applicable framework.
Wallet and instant-payment use cases are common, but the appropriate route depends on who holds the account, safeguards funds, initiates the payment, settles transactions, and interfaces with Pix participants.
Foreign ownership can be structured, subject to corporate, documentary, beneficial-ownership, governance, management, capital, and regulatory requirements.
No. Scope and commercial terms are provided privately because the required work varies materially by modality, product architecture, shareholders, technology, implementation needs, and current readiness.
Map the right PI modalities before building the application.
Send your services, account model, merchant flows, expected volumes, payment methods, Pix needs, target users, and shareholder structure for a private route review.