Systems Over SignalsPayments in Numbers
How the world pays, told through public data. One chapter per system question, each built from official statistics that anyone can check.
Real-time payments
Instant payment systems grow where they become the cheapest way to pay a shop, and stay small while they remain a faster bank transfer. In 2024 Brazil recorded 299 instant payments per person and the United States recorded one, although both run modern systems.
Latest chart stories
Pix passed 100 payments per person in its second year
Aligned by years since launch, Brazil's system outran every other instant system in the set.
Real-time payments · Chart storyThree hundred instant payments a person in Brazil, one in the United States
Every economy at the foot of the table has had a working instant system for years.
Real-time payments · Chart storyInstant payments supplied 94% of India's cashless growth since 2019
Where instant systems scaled, they carry the new payment habits. In card economies, cards still do.
Real-time payments · Chart storyThin card use left room for instant payments. Only some systems used it.
Germany and Italy had fewer card payments per person than Brazil, and instant payments stayed under 1%.
Real-time payments · Chart storyUPI took the debit card's place. Pix grew beside it.
Two instant systems, two different relationships with the card.
Real-time payments · Chart storyTwenty-seven cross-border links, and no published count of their use
Instant systems now connect across borders, mostly for tourists, and mostly around two hubs.
Chapters
Each chapter answers one question about how payment systems work, using the same data model for every economy. Chapters open here once their evidence has passed review.
Real-time payments
Why did some instant payment systems become the main way to pay while others stayed a niche?
Cross-border payments
Are cross-border payments on track for the G20 targets on cost, speed, access and transparency set for 2027?
Central bank digital currencies
Which central bank digital currencies are alive, and what decided their fate?
Wallets and mobile money
Do wallets survive once a fast payment system reaches the same users?
Stablecoins
Are stablecoins used to pay, or mostly to trade?
Agentic payments
What has been built for AI agents to pay, and what is still missing?
Formats
Chart stories
One finding and one exhibit in 300 to 450 words, with the source series on every chart.
Essays
A long argument across a chapter's evidence, built on one frame a reader can reuse.
Trackers
Registries of systems, links and projects by stage, with dates and a last-updated stamp.
Data notes
Definitions, grades and series keys, so any chart can be rebuilt from public sources.
Watch items
One dated question per chapter that the next data release will answer.
How the numbers are built
A finding needs two independent data series that agree. Every series is graded: A for the same definition across economies, B for a proxy or a single national source, C for national data only. Official statistics come first, from the BIS, the World Bank, central banks and system operators.