Brazil’s Central Bank bans Pix, TED, and boleto for fixed-odds betting and backdates the restriction to September 25

Brazil’s Central Bank has published three resolutions that force banks and payment institutions to block transactions to fixed-odds betting operators. The important bit for high-risk payments: the ban is being treated as effective from September 25, even though the operational rules only appeared later.

1. On Friday, October 2, the Central Bank published Resolutions BCB No. 595, 596, and 597 in the Diário Oficial da União. Together, they amend the rules for TED, boleto, and Pix to prohibit “processing, settling, or enabling transactions destined for fixed-odds betting lotteries,” as provided for in Article 14 of Provisional Measure No. 1,394, dated September 25, 2026.
2. The three measures were approved by the Board of Directors in a session on September 30 and signed by Gilneu Francisco Astolfi Vivan, Director of Organization of the Financial System and Resolution. They take effect on the date of publication.
3. For TED, Resolution BCB No. 595 adds Article 4-A to Resolution BCB No. 256/2022. Issuing and receiving institutions must prevent the processing, settlement, and enabling of transactions destined for fixed-odds betting. There is one carve-out: transactions needed to close operations and refund funds to bettors remain allowed.
4. For Pix, Resolution BCB No. 597 adds item XI to Article 32 of the Pix Regulation, attached to Resolution BCB No. 1/2020. The rule sits alongside other participant obligations, such as monitoring Pix Automático and disclosing the Special Refund Mechanism. Here too, closing transactions and refunds to bettors are still permitted.
5. Boleto is the strictest version of the three. Resolution BCB No. 596 adds Article 16-A to Resolution BCB No. 443/2024 and imposes the same blocking obligation on all institutions participating in the boleto payment arrangement, but without any exception for returning value to bettors. In plain terms: Pix and TED can still be used to unwind positions; boleto cannot.

The part payment teams will care about is the retroactive timing. The TED and boleto rules say institutions have been obligated to block these transactions “since the publication date of Provisional Measure No. 1,394,” which means since September 25. So the Central Bank is effectively saying that transactions processed between September 25 and October 2 were already out of line, even before the operational resolutions were published.