Cashless Payments

After testing WhatsApp payments in India for some years, Facebook has been granted a legal permit to roll out the payment service across the country.

The service uses the Indian Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and users are able to make payments to any user using an app that is built on that standard.

Just a week after its launch in the country, WhatsApp Pay was suspended by the Central Bank of Brazil.

The bank authority released a statement suggesting it hadn’t had the opportunity to analyse WhatsApp’s payment service before its rollout, and that was a mandatory step before the service could be launched.

WhatsApp payments partners for in Brazil are required to suspend money transfers on the app or will face fines and administrative sanctions.

After testing a beta version in India, WhatsApp rolled out a system across Brazil on Monday that allows users to send money to individuals or local businesses within a chat, attaching payments as they would a photo or video.

The messaging application has more than 120 millions in the country, and small businesses already use WhatsApp as a marketing tool to answer questions or send catalogs.

“Payments on WhatsApp are beginning to roll out to people across Brazil beginning today and we look forward to bringing it to everyone as we go forward,” the company said in the post.

After several attacks on money transporters in the past in Switzerland, the industry is now facing other challenges: While the protective measures around the transport have stayed the same, the fears of transmission of the coronavirus have lowered the cash flow. However, the cost of protective measures remains the same, which leads to high-cost pressure in the industry.