The Central Bank will allow it foreign tourists make QR payments directly from their accounts. The agency plans to extend the benefits to foreign visitors who can already pay by credit card at the financial exchange rate “dollar bag” to those who make payments directly from their mobile phone.
After decisions made in a hurry in the middle of the bullfight, the agency’s board had room to enact measures that do not necessarily aim to resolve the urgent issue. As they explained in a statement: “The consumption of foreign tourists made through electronic wallets which imply a charge on your bank or virtual account They can also be settled at an exchange rate that is referenced to the financial dollar.”
The provision, which enters into force from this Friday equates payment with QR of foreign wallets to those made with debit and credit cardslaunched in November last year and which, according to sources in the financial system, has been very successful among tourists.
as far as he could tell clarion, The beneficiaries would primarily be Brazilian tourists, who, within neighboring countries, are the ones who visit the country the most. Only last year they arrived in the country almost by air 1.7 million foreign and Brazilian tourists lead the ranking.
The idea is, as well-informed sources explain, to capture the attention of Brazilian tourists in the country, take advantage of the importance that the PIX instant payment system has in the neighboring country. Pix is the digital wallet promoted by the Central Bank of the neighboring country. It was launched in 2020 and was quickly adopted by Brazilians: as of January of this year, it had more than 450 million accounts created.
Although the official press release from the Central specifies that: “The foreign operators of these wallets must enter into agreements with local administrators in order to be able to transfer to their financial users the advantage of making payments with QR in companies throughout the country”, it emerged that it would be PIX in alliance with a payment processor operating in Argentina that would bite the toe after this measure.
“The idea is that it will be operational for the winter holidays, a time of great arrival of Brazilians in the country,” they said.
In November last year and in a context of declining reserves and a rising exchange rate, the Central had launched the “Euro MP dollar for tourists” which essentially consists of an “exception” so that cardholders can avoid go through the (misnamed) Single and Free Exchange Market (MULC) and liquidate foreigners’ purchases in the country at the official exchange rate and, instead, go to the financial market, where they can offer you the so-called “dollar exchange” price for the your consumption. , which closed at $430 this Thursday.
The press release from the Central highlights that this “benefit” is already used both for “charges for consumption made by non-residents using debit, credit, purchase or prepaid cards issued abroad”, and for “charges for any type of tourist service in the country employed by non-residents, including those employed through wholesale and/or retail travel and tourism agencies in the country”.
Source: Clarin
