In line with what the financial entities had been demanding, the Central Bank (BCRA) established that, as of September 1, businesses that display a QR code to charge with credit cards must accept that customers can make payments with any interoperable digital wallet, regardless of the QR brand they use.
Thus, it was established that “the acquirers and aggregators that offer the service will not be able to discriminate in the commissions and terms of accreditation of the funds to the trade according to the brand of wallet that ordered the payment”, according to the Central, noting that the regulation aims to improve the experience for both users and for the shops.
In the same sense, the BCRA stipulated that, when acquirers or aggregators are also transfer payment acceptors, they must offer businesses a single QR code that includes all payment instruments. “In this way, the payment experience will be friendlier for people, since, until now, the interoperability of QRs was limited to transfer payments (PCT),” said the monetary regulator.
The problem that existed until now in the QRs
And it is that, according to Ambit a fintech entrepreneur,”the QR always represents the business and the QR that uses a Mercado Pago QR only receives card payments if the app (issuer) that pays is from the same companyin what would be a closed loop”.
“This rule comes to solve a problem that was presented to customers when paying with credit cards and that is, for example, Mercado Pago only allows you to pay by card through your walletUntil now, if the QR that is scanned is from the company. And, thus, if a Mercado Pago QR is read with MODO, for example, you cannot pay with a card,” explains a source from the banking sector.
What Mercado Pago demands from the banks
This whole situation had generated a controversy at the beginning of April of this year as a result of a letter made public by the banking associations and chambers in which they reported on this problem. In that occasion, Mercado Pago had responded to the note saying that banks only give benefits (such as promos or discounts) to their customers if they use the MODO app and complained that they were also closed benefits.
“Market Payment denounced that the banks are like a club of friends that they want to get on an acquisition network that they put together with a lot of investment and that the banks could have done too but they don’t,” they say in the fintech sector.
As a result of this controversy, after the implementation of the new measure, the BCRA ordered that, after reading a QR codethe user can choose whether to use PCT or credit card to pay, without having to change the digital wallet to make the payment.
New roles in the ecosystem
Also, to achieve more transparency, the new provision expands the scope of the registry of payment providers that can be consulted on the BCRA website. Now they must also register:
• Acceptors: adhere to businesses to allow them to charge with payment with transfer (PCT) within the framework of the Transfers 3.0 program.
• Acquirers: adhere to businesses to allow them to charge with debit, credit and/or prepaid cards.
• Aggregators or sub-acquirers: They provide businesses with access to payment through debit, credit and/or prepaid cards, or other instruments. They act as a recipient of funds from the settlement of these instruments prior to accreditation to businesses.
In addition, they will be included in the psp record to extra-bank collection companies that provide payment services, tax collection, services through the use of cash and other payment instruments.
Finally, the regulation extends to PSPs that initiate immediate transfers from accounts provided by others (payment initiators, PSI) the obligation to comply with the regulations for this payment instrument. One of the most important consequences will be that the ISPs will have to enable their clients to make transfers both towards CBU and CVUas financial institutions or other PSPs that offer payment accounts to their customers currently do.
Source: Ambito
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