By order of the Central Bank, this Tuesday the deadline to launch the Interoperable QR code between different virtual wallets when making payments with credit cards in stores. This is a measure that Mercado Pago, the fintech that is part of Mercado Libre, opposes and that has been demanded by banks since 2022.
The measure was adopted last year by the Central Bank and ratified by the current authorities to promote competition in an expanding services and technology sector.
But the interoperability of QR codes, until now valid only for transfers between accounts, was put on hold again despite the fact that the actors of the traditional financial system – banks, payment processors and acquirers – claimed to have everything ready for its implementation in the middle of last year.
The Central had to postpone the entry into force of this rule on three occasions, but in the middle of this month it had anticipated that April 30 would be the deadline. Mercado Pago, which had first alluded to technical reasons for delaying its update to this system, now refers to purely commercial reasons for not “opening” its network.
Disagreement over Mercado Pago clauses
The company reported that it has not been able to reach an agreement with the banks that issue credit cards and other wallets regarding the financing of the costs imposed by the system. “At Mercado Pago we carry out and complete the technological developments and technical tests within the deadline set by the BCRA standard, and we are in a position to offer the interoperability of the QR code for credit cards in a secure manner. Our network is now available to all virtual wallets that wish to use it for credit card payments,” they said in a statement.
However, they pointed out that in the absence of an agreement with the banks, interoperability cannot come into operation. “As happens in all services and relationships between actors in the payment system (for example, the ATM network), the use of the QR network has a cost.”
The note maintains in this sense that a system of this type “requires contractual agreements of terms and conditions between the actors of the systemwhich includes fraud prevention clauses, user security requirements, intellectual property and protection of personal data, among others.
And he adds: “After two rounds of proposals, To date, the majority of wallets and their issuing banks maintain their rejection of these clauses. and they refuse to accept the conditions for the interoperability of the QR with credit cards. This is the reason why it is not enabled yet.”
“We are sitting at a negotiating table ready to discuss the conditions, as we always did. This requires dialogue and the definition of reasonable conditions. We hope that this obstacle will be resolved as soon as possible,” they stated from Marcado Pago.
The fintech relies on the role its services played in the development of the digital payments ecosystem in the country to claim, as it turned out, the payment of a monthly commission for allowing other companies access to your network. “6 years ago, Mercado Pago created the QR network in Argentina after an investment of more than 33 million dollars. This allowed hundreds of thousands of businesses to charge electronically for the first time and millions of Argentines chose the QR to pay, in an unprecedented advance of financial inclusion throughout the country,” they maintain.
Along these lines, they highlighted that this “promoted the single interoperable standard of codes for all players” and that in 2022 “it opened the network for payments with money on account.” “Since that time, more than 75% of merchants received at least one interoperable payment,” the statement said.
For its part, The banks maintain that the conditions imposed by Mercado Pago to open its network “are ridiculous.” “More time ago, banks and cards invested hundreds of millions of dollars and Mercado Pago was able to join their network to develop the app 100% free,” they warned.
In the midst of these intersections, the Central Bank recognizes that Mercado Pago does not comply with its regulations, but they are waiting to see how the situation evolves to take new measures.
End of Debin system
At the same time, it was also confirmed that since this Tuesday Automatic Debit or Debin will be deactivatedan electronic transfer method initiated by the person collecting and that, with the simple acceptance of the person paying, allows payments to be made periodically.
Mercado Pago uses Debin so that its clients can load their bank accounts into their wallet one time and have their funds available. The Central Bank decided that this mechanism be replaced by “pull transfers.”
In this regard, the Argentine Chamber of Non-Banking Financial Services Companies (Caesfi) recalled that from May 1st, other modalities and services for wallet users will come into force.
“This is the elimination of the Immediate Debit system (Debin) that many users of virtual wallets currently use to fund them and its replacement with another system called Pull Transfers; and the inclusion of the Electronic Certificate for Deposits and Term Investments (Cedip), which will allow this type of placement to be used as a means of payment,” they noted.
The Debin is the mechanism that It was being used until now to “charge balance” to the wallet, but it was also used to commit scams. It is actually an authorization for a third party to collect a certain amount from their own account. Designed for commerce, some scammers used devices to obtain a victim’s CBU to enter and empty their account.
