2024-04-30 06:41:00
Despite the Central Bank’s firm announcement that interoperability for QR payments with debit or credit cards would begin on April 30, the move will not actually work. Businesses with QR readers provided by Mercado Pago They still won’t accept payments with cards loaded in another wallet, since the financial company Mercado Libre will not open its system. The negotiations with the banks have not been successful and the BCRA rule will not, for now, be implemented.
“We are technically ready to work. But Mercado Pago does not give us the credentials, the security keys of its API so that we can process the operations. If that doesn’t happen, interoperability can’t start,” they explained to him Infobae in Modo, the wallet shared by all the banks in the system (with the exception of the Provincia) and the greatest interest in interoperability starting.
In Modo they declare that joint work was taking place between their technical teams and the staff of the Marcos Galperin, in which there was even “good understanding and significant progress”. But when the time comes to enable the keys, a necessary step for the system to work, Mercado Pago made “unreasonable demands”. In Modo they consider that “some situation above the technical level” within Mercado Pago stopped the possibility of meeting the deadlines of the BCRA.
A tough meeting that took place a few days ago between Mercado Pago and the main banks in the system he made it clear that the problem is commercial only and that an agreement could not be reached to distribute the Commission. Specifically: how much the Mercado Pago card-issuing bank will pay each time a purchase goes through its QR network.
In Mercado Pago they admit that they did not provide the keys and agree that the technical aspect has been resolved. The problem is economic. “Using the QR network is costly and requires contractual agreements terms and conditions between the actors of the system, including fraud prevention clauses, user security requirements, intellectual property and personal data protection, among others,” they explained in Mercado Pago.
“After two rounds of proposals, most wallets and their issuing banks stand by these clauses and They refuse to accept the conditions regarding the interoperability of the QR with credit cards. That is why it has not been enabled yet,” said the company, which indicated that it was “willing to discuss the conditions” at the negotiating table.
A Mercado Pago source said that based on an estimate of card payments made last month, a top bank would not have to pay more than $30,000 a month to use the company’s QR network.
Apart from the fact that it did not reach an agreement with Modo, Mercado Pago’s refusal would also affect any other wallet that wants to load debit or credit cards from any entity and use the QR network.
Why is this issue so important in the fight between the banks and Mercado Libre regarding the payment methods business? Today, when business QR provided by Mercado Pago, it only accepts card payments via QR if the plastic is loaded in the Mercado Pago wallet and rejects them if the customer has loaded their card in a bank wallet, such as Modo.
The BCRA rule ends this exclusivity for Mercado Pago and forces it to open its network to Modo and any other wallet. After several extensions, decided that it will come into effect on April 30. But really, that won’t happen..
There is already interoperability in QR payments when they are made from account to account, based on the “Transfers 3.0” program that has been in place since 2021. Since then, all QR readers (provided by Mercado Pago (mostly) accept payments from all wallets via transfer, regardless of their brands. The BCRA then intervened in the negotiations and established a commission scheme that satisfied everyone.
A few days ago, at Payments Day, an event on payment methods organized by Road Show, the directors of the BCRA Pedro Inhauspe y Agustín Pesce They confirmed that there would be no new extension. “The date of April 30 is still firm. Things are to be adjusted, but that date is not going to move,” he explained. immersionwhich clarified that the entity will proceed with the demand regardless of whether Mercado Pago agrees with the rest of the system or not.
“The Central Bank is the regulator, it is not going to participate in a trade agreement. Compliance with standards cannot be subject to a commercial agreement. We have tried to seat all the actors at one table and the opening is not subject to that. The BCRA has a purpose related to taking care of the user as directed in the Organic Charter. And that is the path we believe must be followed,” the BCRA director added. The trade agreement did not happen and, despite this firmness in the Central position, interoperability will not begin.
What will change for the user when interoperable QR is implemented? Every time you see a QR in a business, whether it’s physical on a sign or digital on a POS terminal screen, you have the opportunity to take out your cell phone and you can choose twice in a few seconds. First, you will choose which of all the digital wallets on your phone, from both banks and fintech, you want to use to pay. Once inside the wallet, The second option is your payment method: with money in an account (CBU or CVU), debit card or credit card. Until now, you only had that freedom if you chose to pay by transfer.
In that sense, one survey among many that shows the growth in the use of electronic payment methods showed that the use of QR payments would be more attractive among users if all the wallets could be integrated.
According to the study “Methods of Payment and Financing”, carried out by D’Alessio IROL, shows that “the use of QR for payments continues to increase, especially among those under 45 years of age (77%) and also among half of the Silver Generation”.
“There is a tendency to initiate and/or pay more frequently with QR if it could be integrated with any digital wallet available on the market,” the consultant said. Addressing the question “Would you pay more for QR if it worked with any wallet?”61% of those consulted responded that they would do “the same or more than now”, while 33% responded negatively.
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