The Association of Banks of Argentina (adeba) asked the Central Bank (BCRA) requested the interoperability of QR codes to pay with any payment method through a code, and not necessarily through the money in account.
The entity, which includes more than twenty banks among which are Macro, Galicia, Comafi, Mortgage, Supervielle and Bancormade the request to the financial organization official: “The BCRA has the key and is on time for the market to be competitive. A simple regulatory amendment that establishes that QRs must be interoperable with all wallets and banking apps would give competition and transparency to digital payments.”
Through a note titled as “The strange case of non-interoperable QR”from Adeba explain the importance of “full interoperability”.
“What this generates is that a business -which has a provider to accept physical cards that allows it to satisfy its needs- that wants to charge with QRs is forced to hire as many services as wallets their customers have, generating higher costs for commerce (which translates to price) and complexity for the operation, both for the commerce and for the client”, the problem is explained.
Limiting competition through QR payment
According to the banking organization, the problem lies in the closure of QR systems by providers for consumers other than their customers. In this context, it is a “Anti-competitive attitude that -surprisingly and only for the QR segment- tolerates the BCRA regulations”.
Currently, consumers have the option to pay through any debit or credit card in a store “without worrying who provided the business with the “device” (the POS) that reads the card”, which is called “full interoperability”. Payments made through a QR code, in contrast, can only be made “with credit or debit cards to the extent that you are a client of the wallet or institution that provides the QR”.
The statement also refers to the “main QR provider”which came to have such a market share that today gives it quasi-monopoly power in the segment.
Although Adeba highlights the merit of the company, it highlights the “tax advantages” obtained: “Two main factors can be identified: on the one hand, the merit of the company, which offered an innovative and quality product for payment to businesses before than the rest. On the other hand, the numerous tax and regulatory advantages that the authorities initially granted to Bigtechs and Fintechs for payments with QR”.
From the association they request the Central Bank the regulation of this type of marketswhere the one who provides the POS or the one who provides the QR cannot have wallets, or through requested interoperability.
Source: Ambito
