Brazil Enacts Automatic Alimony Transfer System (Pix Pensão)

Brazil’s Congress approved Law 15.479, known as “Pix Pensão,” creating an automatic electronic system for transferring court‑ordered alimony between bank accounts. The law amends the Civil Procedure Code, allowing the amount fixed by a judge to be debited from the payer’s account and credited to the beneficiary’s account on the dates set by the court. The system can be requested at any stage of enforcement and will become effective one year after its publication in the official gazette.

If the payer’s account lacks sufficient funds, the financial institution must notify the supervisory authority, which may block assets and, after persistent default, convert the block into a seizure, even of business assets. The measure originated from a bill by Deputy Tabata Amaral, with Senate rapporteur Senator Ana Paula Lobato, and requires the National Council of Justice to publish anonymized statistics on alimony cases. The Central Bank of Brazil will regulate the electronic transfers.