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Brazilian authorities suspend WhatsApp payments

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Re: Brazilian authorities suspend WhatsApp payments

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

9 BRL is what? 2 USD? Compare with https://answers.usbank.com/answers/s/article/How-much-does-a... (spoiler alert: 10x more - for both senders and receivers) Whatsapp transfers would be ~ 5% of the cost which would make it more expensive for anything over 200BRL Meanwhile inside the SEPA Area (EU), National and International payments have the same cost (which is usually 0)

In the US I pay $0 for transfers under like $2500 using various free services like Venmo or Cash App.

Good to know

Do business accept Venmo (I know some do, though it seems Venmo is backed by a pre-paid card)? Can you pay your rent with it, for example? Tuition? Buy a car with it?

The payment methods I mentioned don't require people to install an app or enter an agreement, you have a bank account they're available to you. Sure, there's some typing of numbers (but that's pretty much a copy-paste today). Not to mention the privacy issues with Venmo.

Re: Brazilian authorities suspend WhatsApp payments

#72

As a Brazilian, I'm pleased. Our central bank is going to release a platform called PIX. Financial institutions with more than 500.000 clients are required to implement it. Finally we are going to have a standard across banks, and money transfers are going to be less complex, clunky and costly. Of course, other apps have come before. We have apps like PicPay, PayPal and Nubank, just to name a few, that provide instan…

>...I'd rather not need Facebook to conveniently pay for my loaf of bread.

If you need any app to pay for a loaf of bread, then you have far more deep seated systemic issues than "OMG Facebook!!".

Re: Brazilian authorities suspend WhatsApp payments

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's problematic and not as good as direct bank to bank transfers.

Electronic Money Transfer (EMT)/e-transfering is a bank-to-bank transfer in Canada.

It may be convenient use other ids besides bank account numbers, but it adds another avenue for mistakes.

Re: Brazilian authorities suspend WhatsApp payments

#75
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure there is. The government has the responsibility to create a free market. If a proprietary standard wins, you have a monopoly without competition. If the government standard wins that enables interoperability, no company can block other competitors. Europe did the same and it worked.

What stops the government from abusing this standard to impose arbitrary restrictions on spending?

Nothing that cannot also be applied to Facebook.

The Brazilian Central Bank has authority on money transfers, so whatever regulation they want to arbitrarily impose regarding this matter, they can do.

Facebook is a registered company in Brazil, they were going to operate the payments platform through a card processor, etc, so directly or indirectly they are under the authority of the Central Bank.

EDIT: by the way, regular banks and fintechs already have to be a participant in the Central Bank's payments system in order to settle funds. PIX is (also) a 24x7 implementation of the existing electronic money transfer system which only is available on working days.

Re: Brazilian authorities suspend WhatsApp payments

#76
post #35

They should try in Spain or other European countries where Coronavirus has hit hard and has high WhatsApp usage

Europe already has easy money transfer

Not that easy. You need to exchange the IBAN and add it in your bank app. In Spain there’s Bizum which allows to send to a phone number but it doesn’t have nearly the popularity of Whatsapp. And it’s national only. We’re missing a Europe-wide solution.

Re: Brazilian authorities suspend WhatsApp payments

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this is about Pix, and I believe it is, Government is killing competitors. If Pix is better, people will choose Pix, if WhatsApp is better, people will use it. Let's not force people to use a solution and create a monopoly controlled by the Government, again.

No matter how good PIX is, as a local standard it will never be able to do what Whatsap (may) be able to do - transact with foreigners.

Oh, this would be a whole can of worms that Facebook would not want to open.

International transactions are very regulated in Brazil and certainly not only the Central Bank would be heavy with their hammer, but Receita Federal (tax authority) would also be very interested in this.

When PayPal started operating in Brazil, they had to convert all Brazilian accounts held in USD to BRL, and there are some restrictions on currency exchange operations that accounts registered in other countries don't have.

Re: Brazilian authorities suspend WhatsApp payments

#78

As a Brazilian, I'm pleased. Our central bank is going to release a platform called PIX. Financial institutions with more than 500.000 clients are required to implement it. Finally we are going to have a standard across banks, and money transfers are going to be less complex, clunky and costly. Of course, other apps have come before. We have apps like PicPay, PayPal and Nubank, just to name a few, that provide instan…

The Bloomberg article that The Verge is referencing says that WhatsApp plans to implement PIX: https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-06-23/brazi...

We've changed the URL to that from https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/24/21301470/whatsapp-payment.... This is the third or fourth theverge.com submission we've had to do that for in the last couple days.
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