As WhatsApp Pay received the green light from Brazil’s Central Bank to operate its peer-to-peer payments service, experts questioned the impact that the messaging platform’s ultra-high penetration will have on the country’s payments market. Some 98% of Brazil’s smartphones have WhatsApp installed, according to a study from Mobile Time/Opinion Box in January this year. Additionally, 86% of respondents who had WhatsApp installed said they use the app every single day and 9% said they used it almost every day. WhatsApp’s first effort to enter Brazil’s payments market came in mid-2020, when it launched the service alongside partners including Cielo, Banco do Brasil, Nubank and Sicredi. But the move was blocked by regulators. Now, that has changed. On 30 March this year, Brazil’s central bank approved WhatsApp to initiate funds transfers among Visa and Mastercard cardholders under the Facebook Pay program. “WhatsApp Pay was approved under the open banking agenda,” noted Arthur Rodrigues, founder partner of Xsfera.

https://iupana.com/2021/05/03/whatsapp-pay-set-to-shake-up-brazils-payments-service-market/?lang=en