Paying a supplier in Brazil from the US means sending dollars from your own bank to a USD account over ACH or Fedwire, converting them to USDC, and paying the invoice in reais over Pix (Brazil's instant payment system, run by the Central Bank). Mexico and Colombia follow the same path, ending in pesos over local rails.
The supplier receives a domestic bank transfer in its own currency and never touches crypto.
How does a US company pay a supplier in Brazil, Mexico or Colombia?
In four legs, one rail per leg. The company sends dollars from its bank to its own USD account, the dollars convert to USDC, the USDC waits in a custodial wallet until the invoice is due, and a payout converts it into the supplier's currency and sends it to the supplier's bank over Pix, SPEI (Mexico's interbank transfer system, run by Banxico), Bre-B (Colombia's instant payment system) or ACH Colombia.
The four legs of a payment from a US bank account to a supplier's local account (Lumx docs, read November 1, 2026)
Leg | What happens | Rail | Timing |
1. Dollars in | The company pays its USD account from its bank (USD to USDC) | ACH or Fedwire | ACH 1 to 2 business days; Fedwire the same business day |
2. Convert | Each USD deposit converts to USDC | None | Follows the deposit |
3. Hold | USDC sits in the company's custodial wallet until the invoice date | None | Until you pay |
4. Pay out | USDC converts into reais or pesos and goes to the supplier's bank (global payments) | Pix, SPEI, Bre-B or ACH Colombia | Pix, SPEI and Bre-B settle instantly, around the clock |
Each pair of currencies and rails is a stablecoin corridor, and the last leg is a stablecoin off-ramp. The USDC in the middle is explained in what USDC is.
On Lumx, the US company is one customer with a USD account in its own name, a custodial wallet and one destination per supplier. The company needs no crypto wallet of its own, because the custodial wallet is created with the customer. Legs 1 and 2 run as an on-ramp transaction, leg 4 runs as an off-ramp transaction, and both sit behind the same API and the same webhooks.
Getting the dollars in: ACH, Fedwire and the day they land
The company requests a USD account, receives ACH and Fedwire deposit details from a banking partner, and sends dollars to them from its own bank account. SWIFT also works for USD collection. Lumx supports ACH credit (push) only, with no ACH debit, so the company always initiates the transfer. Over ACH the transfer takes 1 to 2 business days. Over Fedwire (the Federal Reserve's same-day wire system) it settles the same business day, typically within hours. Both are processing targets.
Lumx lists 2:00 PM ET as the cut-off for USD ACH and 3:00 PM ET for Fedwire, and anything after the cut-off, on a weekend or on a US federal holiday moves to the next business day. Plan the funding day backwards from those times.
The USD account is the part with a waiting period. It turns ACTIVE after the company's KYB (know your business, the verification of a company and its owners) is approved, and the banking partner's review adds up to one business day for USD. Lumx targets one business day for KYB, so start onboarding before the first invoice is due.
On Lumx there are two ways to collect the dollars:
A standing autoconversion rule on the USD account returns one set of bank details (account number, routing number and bank name), and every matching deposit converts to USDC with no per-payment call. A USD account holds one active rule at a time, and each deposit has to be worth at least 50 USD or it is not converted.
A per-payment on-ramp for an exact amount returns the account and routing numbers for that deposit on ACH or Fedwire, and the deposit has to match the amount. A deposit that lands after the on-ramp expires is refunded to the sender on the same rail.
Which rail pays the supplier in each country?
One local rail in Brazil and Mexico, two in Colombia. The rail fixes what the supplier has to hand over: a Pix key or a CNPJ (the Brazilian company taxpayer ID) in Brazil, a CLABE (the 18-digit Mexican bank account number) in Mexico, and in Colombia either a key on Bre-B or bank details for ACH Colombia.
Payout rail, supplier details and settlement by country (Lumx docs and Lumx product facts, read November 1, 2026)
Country | Rail | What the supplier gives you | Settlement | Rate page |
Brazil | Pix | Pix key or the company's CNPJ, plus legal name | Instant, 24/7/365 | |
Mexico | SPEI | CLABE, legal name, tax ID | Instant, 24/7/365 | |
Colombia | Bre-B | The supplier's Bre-B key | Instant, up to 1,000 UVB per payment | |
Colombia | ACH Colombia | Name, document type and number, email, bank, account number and type | No per-payment cap on Lumx |
In Colombia the rail is chosen when you register the supplier, not when you pay. A Bre-B payout above 1,000 UVB is refused, and Lumx neither splits it nor sends it down another rail. For 2026 the cap is COP 12,110,000 per payment, set by the Banco de la República in its Circular Reglamentaria Externa DSP-465 (Asunto 18, numeral 3.2). It applies to every provider that pays out over Bre-B, so it is a rule of the rail and not a feature of any one platform. A supplier that invoices above it needs an ACH Colombia destination, and the peso leg runs under a banking partner's licence. For a company that is not Colombian, the Colombian supplier sees that banking partner as the sender, on Bre-B and on ACH Colombia.
Because the destination carries the rail, the same API call on Lumx pays a Pix key, a CLABE or a Bre-B key. The full list of countries and currencies is on the coverage page.
What to collect from each supplier before the first payment
The legal name on the invoice, the tax ID and the account have to describe the same entity. Compare all three against the invoice before payday.
For a Brazilian supplier, ask for the CNPJ and the Pix key registered to it; the guide to USDC payouts in Brazil has the rail. For a Mexican supplier, ask for the CLABE and the RFC (Mexico's taxpayer registry number), and read the CLABE back from a bank letter; the guide to USDC payouts in Mexico has the SPEI side. For a Colombian supplier, ask which rail it prefers, collect its NIT or RUT, and ask whether any invoice will pass COP 12,110,000; the guide to USDC payouts in Colombia covers both rails.
On Lumx, each supplier is registered as a destination with the holder relationship SUPPLIER, and the payout carries the purpose TRADE_TRANSACTIONS. A SPEI destination requires the holder's type, tax ID and legal name, since October 21, 2026. The destination is verified before it can be paid, and the destinations.approved webhook says when it is ready.
Paying the exact invoice amount, within the limits
A locked rate fixes the conversion for 30 seconds, 1 minute or 5 minutes and accepts either a source or a target amount, so you ask for the figure on the invoice in reais or pesos and the quote returns the USDC it costs. The 30-second lock has no fee and the longer ones carry one. Pass the returned exchangeRateId on the payout, and request a new quote if the lock expires.
Lumx does not deduct a fee from the amount that reaches the supplier on a Pix, SPEI or Bre-B payout; only the supplier's own bank can charge it. A payout larger than the wallet balance fails, so fund before you quote.
The limit that surprises a first-time payer is not on the rail. Lumx caps each customer per transaction, per day and per month, separately for on-ramps and off-ramps, by verification level. A company on KYB Standard has a per-transaction limit of $50,000 and a daily and monthly limit of $100,000, in every country. Three Brazilian invoices of $40,000 on the same day total $120,000, so the third has to wait for the next day, or the company needs Enhanced KYB, which raises the limits to fit the documents it submits. A payment over a limit is rejected with TRANSACTION_LIMIT_EXCEEDED before any money moves. Limit increases are requested from the Lumx dashboard with a supporting document, and review targets one business day.
I recommend that a US finance team pays its first supplier in each country with a payment small enough to lose without a meeting, and requests the higher limits before the first large invoice, not after it is due. I would also fund the USD account for one payment run at a time, because every deposit becomes a USDC balance the moment it lands, and a balance nobody budgeted for is a treasury position the CFO never approved.
What the supplier sees, and what stays on your file
On a Pix payout, the supplier's bank statement shows the paying company as the sender, under the legal name registered in KYB, and not Lumx. A SPEI payout does the same. A COP payout from a company that is not Colombian shows the banking partner instead.
The company's own file is short. What to send compliance:
KYB, once, at onboarding.
Destination verification: each supplier is verified before it can be paid, and
destinations.approvedrecords it.The purpose,
TRADE_TRANSACTIONS, on every payout.The webhook trail and the receipt from
GET /transactions/{id}.
Every payout carries a purpose, and a purpose that does not match the funds can hold the payment or raise an RFI (request for information, a compliance hold that asks for a document before a transaction clears). A webhook announces an RFI instead of a silent delay.
Lumx accounts pay the onboarded customer's own suppliers with its own funds. Paying a subsidiary's supplier from the parent's wallet is allowed once compliance has approved the flow of funds in writing.
A payout that cannot complete ends in offramp.failed. Read the transaction with GET /transactions/{id} before resending: a new idempotency key can pay twice, and the same Idempotency-Key does not.
A bank wire against this route, leg by leg
The Federal Reserve's FEDS Note of March 30, 2026 says that more than 60 percent of wholesale payments are routed through one or more intermediaries, and that less common currency pairs may need a broad network of correspondent banks in several jurisdictions. When a bank on the way converts dollars to reais, it sets its own rate.
A dollar wire from a US bank and the stablecoin route, compared on the points a payments team checks
Question | Dollar wire (SWIFT) | Stablecoin route |
What the supplier receives | Dollars, or reais after a conversion by a bank in the chain | A domestic Pix, SPEI, Bre-B or ACH Colombia transfer in its own currency |
Settlement | 1 to 5 business days (Lumx docs) | ACH or Fedwire in, then instant on Pix, SPEI and Bre-B |
Intermediaries | One or more correspondents, which can add hours or days and deduct fees outside your control (Lumx docs) | The USD account's banking partner, then the local rail |
Rate you see before paying | Set by whichever bank converts | A locked quote for the exact invoice amount |
Cost to the payer | Sender's bank fees, plus fees that intermediaries can deduct from the amount (Lumx docs) | Lumx's pricing is a monthly platform fee plus usage-based per-transaction fees, transparent FX on locked quotes, no pre-funding; no published plans. The 30-second lock has no fee, and no fee is deducted from the amount that reaches the supplier on Pix, SPEI or Bre-B |
For the wider case, see stablecoins and SWIFT for B2B payments. For a supplier that wants dollars, Lumx pays USD over ACH, Fedwire or SWIFT to the supplier's account, with UETR and MT103 confirmations on every SWIFT payout. Lumx's SWIFT runs in USD only.
When this route is the wrong tool for a supplier payment
When the supplier invoices in dollars and holds a US account. Paying it by ACH or wire skips two conversions.
When the supplier sits outside Brazil, Mexico and Colombia. Check the coverage page first. For a supplier in mainland China, dollars by SWIFT are the answer, and our guide to paying suppliers in China explains why.
When the money is not the paying company's. A US sourcing agent that pays its clients' suppliers through its own account is nesting, which needs the written approval of compliance at compliance@lumx.io.
When the payer is on the other side of the corridor. A Brazilian or Mexican company paying a US supplier has its own guide to Brazil and Mexico to US suppliers.
What a dollar invoice paid in reais looks like on Lumx
Lumx is stablecoin payments infrastructure for businesses that move money between Latin America and the rest of the world: one API to collect, hold, convert, and pay out in BRL, MXN, COP, USD, EUR, and GBP or in USDC and USDT, over local rails such as PIX, SPEI, PSE, Bre-B, ACH, FEDWIRE, SEPA, and Faster Payments, with SWIFT and on-behalf-of payments and collections (POBO and COBO) in USD, EUR, and GBP, plus named virtual accounts, custodial wallets, and KYB/KYC built in.
Take a US furniture importer with a supplier in Curitiba. It requests a USD account when it is created as a customer, receives an account number and a routing number, and pays them from its bank by ACH. The deposit converts to USDC, the supplier is registered as a SUPPLIER destination, and a locked quote for the invoice amount in reais goes to the off-ramp. The supplier receives a Pix transfer under the importer's name, and the importer follows the offramp.* webhooks to offramp.success.
Every payment has the same cost shape: a monthly platform fee plus usage-based per-transaction fees, transparent FX on locked quotes, no pre-funding; no published plans. The FX appears as a quoted amount before you commit. The limits and cut-offs by rail page lists the deadlines, and paying contractors covers people.
Verified on November 1, 2026. Operational context, not legal, tax, or investment advice.
Cover photo: Venti Views on Unsplash.
How do you pay suppliers in Brazil from the US?
Send dollars from your US bank to a USD account by ACH or Fedwire, let them convert to USDC, then pay the supplier in reais over Pix. Lumx runs all of it behind one customer: a USD account, a custodial wallet, and each Brazilian supplier registered as a destination that is verified before the first payout.
How long does it take a US company to pay a supplier in Mexico?
The SPEI leg settles instantly, any day of the week. The dollars leg takes 1 to 2 business days over ACH or the same business day over Fedwire, per Lumx's processing targets, and a USD account becomes active up to one business day after KYB approval. KYB targets one business day on Lumx, and the SPEI payout has no cut-off.
Is there a limit on a single payment to a supplier?
Yes, two kinds. The customer's verification level caps each transaction, day and month, and a Bre-B payout in Colombia is capped by the central bank at 1,000 UVB, about COP 12,110,000 in 2026. KYB Standard on Lumx allows $50,000 per transaction and $100,000 per day, Enhanced KYB raises them, and an invoice above the Bre-B cap goes to an ACH Colombia destination.
What does the supplier see on its bank statement?
A Pix or SPEI transfer shows the paying company as the sender, under the legal name registered in KYB and not Lumx, so the supplier can match it to the company that owes the invoice. An invoice number still helps. In COP, a company that is not Colombian shows as the banking partner.
What does it cost to pay a supplier this way, and how does it compare with a wire?
A wire carries the sender's bank fees and whatever intermediaries deduct. Lumx prices it as a monthly platform fee plus usage-based per-transaction fees, transparent FX on locked quotes, no pre-funding; no published plans. The 30-second lock has no fee, and no fee is deducted from the amount that reaches the supplier.
