Big blow for Facebook: WhatsApp Pay suspended in Brazil




In yet another blow to Facebook/WhatsApp’s payment ambition, Brazil’s Central Bank has suspended the payment feature of WhatsApp. For a recap, WhatsApp rolled out its payment feature nationwide in the third week of June. However, things didn’t go as planned for the company and Brazil’s Central Bank has now decided to shut down the operation.

This is a major step back for the Facebook-owned company as the company has been trying to enter the payments game for a long time. Brazil also happens to be the second-largest market for WhatsApp. This was the first countrywide roll-out of the payment option on the app. WhatsApp had been testing the feature its payments feature in India since February 2018. In February 2020 after approval from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) WhatsApp was allowed a limited release with the first phase involving 10 million users. Since then, there have been reports of Facebook running into regulatory challenges in India. These challenges have been preventing it from starting a more widespread rollout for Whatsapp Pay.

The decision in Brazil in explained by Central Bank as a way to “preserve an adequate competitive environment” in the mobile payments space. Also to ensure “functioning of a payment system that’s interchangeable, fast, secure, transparent, open and cheap.” Brazil’s Central Bank said the suspension will allow it to evaluate any possible risk to the country’s system of payments and to determine whether the payments system meets the necessary rules. Starting the service without the regulator’s green light could generate “irreparable damage to the system, especially what concerns competition, efficiency and data privacy.”

Brazil’s Central Bank has also requested that Mastercard and Visa stop enabling payment and money transfers through the app. Any non-compliance would lead to heavy fines. The service in Brazil was free for individuals. Businesses, however, had to pay a processing fee of 3.99% on each transaction. Reported as per the blogpost by WhatsApp. https://bit.ly/2NqmHg5

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