How technology is changing rental guarantees in Brazil

What does Pix change?

Pix, Brazil's instant payment system, has run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week since 16 November 2020. In 2025 there were almost 80 billion transactions, and in December that year 148 million people and 12 million companies used it.¹

For rental guarantees, this means an amount can reach the recipient's account on any day and at any time, without waiting for bank clearing. The speed of the transfer doesn't set a guarantee's deadline, though: that depends on the analysis of each case and on what the contract says.

What about Pix Automático?

Running since 16 June 2025, it allows recurring payments with a single prior authorization from the payer. Amounts can be fixed or variable.²

There's one important limit: the recipient must be a company. So it works for charges made by a company, but not for rent paid directly to a landlord who is an individual.

What changed in credit analysis?

Since Complementary Law 166/2019, Brazil's positive credit register, the Cadastro Positivo, no longer needs prior authorization for a person's history to be recorded.³ Instead, the person must be told within 30 days, free of charge, with an explanation of how to cancel. The data can only be shared 60 days later, and cancellation can be requested at any time.

In practice, this history also shows bills paid on time, not just debts. That matters for people who have little relationship with banks but pay their bills properly.

What about the tenant's privacy?

Brazil's data protection law, the LGPD, allows data to be processed "for the protection of credit", without requiring consent in that case.⁴ If a decision is made solely by automated means, the person has the right to request a review.⁵

What is Open Finance, and what does it add?

It's the "standardized sharing of data and services through the opening and integration of systems", regulated by the Central Bank and the National Monetary Council.⁶

Sharing depends on the customer's own consent, which must be free, informed, prior and unequivocal, and given electronically. The rule doesn't accept consent given through an adhesion contract, a pre-ticked form or by presumption.⁷

For renting, the idea is that a person could choose to show their own financial activity instead of gathering paper receipts. Use depends on the company being part of the ecosystem or partnering with one that is, and on the person's authorization.

Can a guarantee contract be signed remotely?

Electronic signatures have had a legal basis since 2001. Documents signed with an ICP-Brasil certificate are presumed true in relation to the signatories. Other means are also valid, "as long as admitted by the parties as valid or accepted by the person against whom the document is presented".⁸

For a fiança, the Civil Code requires written form.⁹ The point to check is whether the parties accepted the signing method, and whether it can prove who signed and when.

What doesn't technology change?

• The types of guarantee: they're still those in article 37 of the Tenancy Law.
• The guarantor's obligations: an app doesn't change what the law and the contract require.
• The need to read the contract: the interface can be simple, but the terms are still in the document.
• Late payment: better data helps assess risk, but doesn't remove the unexpected from renters' lives.

Sources

• Pix Management Report 2023-2025 (in Portuguese), Central Bank of Brazil.
• Joint Resolution No. 1/2020 (in Portuguese), BCB/CMN, consolidated to 22 Oct 2026.
• Complementary Law 166/2019 (in Portuguese), Planalto.
• Lei 12.414/2011 (in Portuguese), Planalto.
• LGPD, Lei 13.709/2018 (in Portuguese), Planalto.
• Provisional Measure 2.200-2/2001 (in Portuguese), Planalto.
• Civil Code (in Portuguese), Planalto.

Accessed 6 Nov 2026.