Fintech: The interoperability of payment reverse requests is expanded – The local “Open Banking” model is growing for payments.
Fintech Department Report | The interoperability of payment reverse requests is expanded – The local “Open Banking” model is growing for payments
Shortly after having regulated the new figure of “digital wallets” (which, as we saw above, recognizes the possibility of enrolling accounts and/or cards issued by third parties in the same application), on May 19, 2022 the BCRA issued the Communication “A” 7514, with the intention of imposing that this connection becomes mandatory for all financial institutions and PSPCPs, so that the interoperability of the Transfers 3.0 immediate transfer program is also extended to the use of accounts.
Until now, interoperability in instant payments had only been established for (i) direct payments between accounts offered by a financial institution or PSPCP and accounts offered by other financial institutions or PSPCP, and for (ii) payments with QR codes, so that users could scan the QR codes of any acquirer (through a “passive payment request”) through any bank or non-bank application that allows scanning QR codes.
On the other hand, the BCRA long ago had regulated the figure of DEBIN (Immediate Debit), which allowed transfers to be generated online (only between bank accounts), through reverse payment orders (that is, where the payment request is generated by the recipient of the payment and is subject to the authorization -spot or recurring- of the payor).
Through this new Communication, all administrators of instant transfer schemes must now implement mechanisms so that users can make –from a bank or payment account– immediate “pull” transfers that allow, through the debit of the account of the client receiving the request, and after he has authorized it (spot or recurring), the immediate crediting of the funds in the account of the requesting client.
This tool, if used by the same user for their own benefit, could allow the user for example, to top-up their payment account from their PSPCP application, making a debit against their bank account, without having to leave the application of their PSPCP.
In the same way, this tool could also be used to make instant payments to merchants from the wallet of any financial institution or PSPCP, through payment reverse requests made against accounts that are not necessarily provided by said application (something that until now could only be done through QR code or DEBIN payments between bank accounts).
Likewise, given that the “Transfers 3.0” instant transfer system still coexists with the DEBIN tool, the BCRA clarified that from now on the DEBIN will no longer be only between bank accounts, but can also be made between bank accounts and payment accounts (given that some wallets had been using DEBIN as an account linking system).
This means that, in practice, all bank and non-bank payment applications will eventually have to become “digital wallets” with account interoperability, since this direct link functionality with third-party accounts will be mandatory.
The deadline for these implementations has been set for September 30, 2022.
As a result of this new regulation, it was rumored that VISA would impose on its acquirers and payment facilitators which offer merchants the payment through QR codes, that such codes also must allow users to make payments with VISA cards enrolled in any digital wallet (as we saw above, interoperability is currently only provided by law for payments between accounts or QR codes that link accounts, but not with cards). VISA would also aim for this implementation to be ready in September. In the recent past, VISA had manifested its opposition for its plastics being freely used as an instrument for Transfers 3.0.