After the technical agreement between Mercado Libre and Modo, the Central Bank established clearer conditions to advance QR interoperability, and set a deadline for the players to integrate their solutions under these new rules. Through communication A 8032, it established on the one hand that all virtual wallets are required to read all QR codes. It also capped the fees that wallets can charge banks for credit card payments and included prepaid cards in “full interoperability.”
“This advance implies a decisive step towards total interoperability in payment methods. The process, initiated and promoted by the BCRA, had as its milestone the entry into force of the interoperability of QR codes for credit card payments that, After successive postponements, it finally happened on April 30, 2024,” the Central Bank noted in a statement.
Interoperability
One of the longest-running disputes between Fintech and banks was to “open” payments via QR code to credit cards. Mercado Pago, promoter of the use of payments via QR and with 80 percent of that market in Argentina, was reluctant to open its systems and wanted financial entities to pay it a fee for allowing them to pay this way.
Through communication A 8032, the BCRA established that all virtual wallets are required to read all QR codes. “This represents a significant improvement in the payment experience for businesses and users,” added the official communication.
Commission
In the communication, the Central set the maximum commission of 0.07 percent per operation that a virtual wallet, such as Mercado Pago, can charge an issuing bank for “intermediating” a credit card payment. It had emerged that the fintech wanted to charge them $30,000 a month. That is, if a wallet reads the payment originated with a credit card issued by another entity, it can charge that bank that commission that is equivalent to 7 cents for every 10,000 pesos collected.
Security
The Central rule leaves in writing the points of agreement that had been reached between banks and wallets in private, regarding the security of transactions made with credit cards. Specifically, what the Central points out are the mechanisms that have to take into account digital wallets, credit cards and payment processors, to prevent any fraud situation when paying. The regulation also establishes who must be responsible if this fraud were to occur.
Roadmap
Finally, the BCRA decided to add to the interoperable QR the payments made with prepaid cards, such as those issued by fintech such as Ualá, Prex, Lemon, among other. The Central also outlined a “roadmap” for these modifications to be put into practice: it gave a period of two months to the players to integrate their solutions under these new rules and nine months to the prepaid cards to be able to join the “full interoperability”.
