While people in Brazil have been able to use WhatsApp for P2P transactions for a while, the national Central Bank had not given the green light for small business payments until now
Cental Bank of Brazil authorized small business payments via WhatsApp. Image: unsplash
Stephane Kasriel, head of commerce and fintech at Meta, announced that Brazil’s central bank had finally given Meta-owned WhatsApp messenger permission to enable C2B payments in the country.
The launch of our new payment feature will happen in the nearest future, according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. It will allow people to browse products, add them to a cart and make card payments to small businesses based in Brazil directly on WhatsApp.
Kasriel added that the firm has prioritized an open model which it is already testing with several retailer partners.
Brazilians got the ability to make P2P payments through WhatsApp back in 2020. In November 2022, WhatsApp announced it was adding the function to browse businesses on WhatsApp by category or name for customers in Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Colombia and the UK. This feature enabled people to find contacts of a certain firm quickly and seamlessly and facilitated shopping.
Some of the businesses were helping people open a bank account, purchase tickets and order products via WhatsApp chat. A secure payment right from a chat with a credit or debit card was immediately launched in India. Meta and Jio Platforms even enabled grocery shopping on WhatsApp for Indian customers.
However, Brazilian regulators have not authorized the option of direct payments to small businesses until now. As soon as the feature rolls out, this seamless checkout experience will be a game-changer for people and businesses alike.
Back in 2020, 60% of Brazilians already used WhatsApp to interact with small businesses. Given the opportunity to browse firms and order products, as well as make direct payments in a single app, Brazilian customers could connect to their favourite businesses in the most convenient way.
