QR payments have exploded in Argentina, driven by the central bank’s interoperable system launched in partnership with fintechs and banks nearly two years ago to be able to pay with account-to-account money transfers. Now, some players are calling for wallet interoperability to go a step further and Payment by credit card is also permitted.
According to data from the latest report on retail payments, prepared by the Central Bank QR payments already account for 25% of total wire transfers taking place in the country. In the last year, the number of operations has multiplied by five and 52 million operations have already been registered through the interoperable system.
These numbers, clarified the Central, include only the interoperable transfers and not those that are made from a virtual wallet to a reader of a company of the same company.
Wire Transfers 3.0 payments are initiated by a QR code, which can come from a bank or a fintech wallet, but They can only be executed if the user has money in that account. If, on the other hand, the user decides to pay by credit card, he can only use it if the QR of the business is the same one he has in his wallet (Mercado Pago, Mode, etc.)
This was the claim of some banks, which are asking to extend interoperability to plastics, to make the way Argentines pay more homogeneous and thus increase the adoption of digital payments in businesses.
Rafael Soto, CEO of Modethe “wallet of banks” which already has 12 million downloads in the country, explained in dialogue with clarion: “We have seen a remarkable growth thanks to Transferencias 3.0, which guarantees the interoperability of account-to-account payments. What this system still needs to become even stronger is that competitor QRs also accept card payments.”
For Soto, the current situation entails damage, both for the trader and for his customers. Among these stands out “the confusion”: “This and that You cannot pay with all wallets in all payment methods, in all QR”he stated and assured: “There are already international standards, designed by card brands such as Visa or Mastercard, for this to happen, but the ecosystem does not respect it”.
Soto noted that the current state of the digital payments ecosystem “influences customer and business decisions.”
Despite the legislation that established the Transference 3.0 system does not provide for payments with credit and transfers money “from account to account”, Soto recalled: “There is a previous legislation, from 2018, which established that all QRs must comply with certain standards for all the types of operations. Brands have also established rules on how the QR e none of this has yet come true“.
The truth is that, despite the claims of these actors, the Central Bank remains, for now, on the sidelines of this initiative. The next step of Transfers 3.0 will be the entry into force of a standard issued by the body chaired by Miguel Pesce which will allow customers to make payments with QR in commercial activities You can also withdraw cash in those boxes.
Source: Clarin
