The changes to Mastercard’s local payment arrangement regulation would enable Mastercard payments through Meta Platforms-owned WhatsApp as part of the Facebook Pay Program. According to finance.yahoo.com, the programme still needs to meet certain conditions before it can be fully implemented.
Mastercard cardholders in Brazil can send and receive money to and from friends and family through WhatsApp since May 2021, when Mastercard debit cardholders with cards issued by Banco Inter, Itaú, Nubank, and Sicredi received access to the P2P WhatsApp service. The payments service on WhatsApp is enabled by Facebook Pay and processed by Facebook Pagamentos and Cielo.
According to the Financial Times, WhatsApp had aimed to launch a payments-to-merchant (P2M) function in Brazil in late 2021. However, Meta’s plan to allow users to send money to businesses via messaging app WhatsApp in Brazil suffered some setbacks due to mismatches with potential payment partners.
While WhatsApp has already rolled out a feature in Brazil and India enabling money transfers between individuals, known as peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, both efforts were initially delayed by regulatory pushback. For instance, Brazil's central bank blocked WhatsApp's P2P payments just days after its launch before eventually allowing it to restart.
Reuters reported in November 2022 that the WhatsApp messaging service will introduce a commercial directory and test a payments tool in Brazil, as Meta Platform regards business messaging as a potential fresh source of revenue. Meta officials cited by the same source revealed that the ultimate goal of this endeavour is to make it so users can find, message, and buy from a business all in the same WhatsApp chat.
Moreover, the directory will allow users to find companies with business messaging accounts on WhatsApp, facilitating easier access to customer service chats. Partnering with local companies, WhatsApp also wants to test a payments tool in Brazil that would make in-app transactions possible with credit or debit cards.
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