Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp messaging service rolled out a system across Brazil that will allow users to send money to individuals or local businesses within a chat, attaching payments as they would a photo or video.

WhatsApp is working with Cielo, Brazil’s largest credit and debit card operator, to process the payments. WhatsApp tested the system in India beginning in 2018. The Brazil launch will be the first nationwide rollout and will introduce the ability to directly pay a business. The company has over 120 million individual users in Brazil, its second-largest market behind India.

 “WhatsApp is heavily used there, both by people and small businesses,” Matt Idema, chief operating officer of WhatsApp, said of Brazil. “We think we can help grow digital payments, help grow the digital economy with small businesses, and help support financial inclusion.” Many of Brazil’s small businesses already use WhatsApp as a marketing tool to answer questions or send catalogs, Idema said.

The rollout in Brazil was long planned, but may help users who are shut in during the coronavirus pandemic, Idema said. “We can’t have the kind of interactions with each other that we normally would, if you want to lend someone cash or if you want to buy something from a local business,” he said.

“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. WhatsApp says its digital payments are an open model that will allow it to add more partners in the future.

There will be no fees for consumers to use the payments service, but merchants will pay a processing fee to receive payments. Users need to link a credit or debit card to their WhatsApp account, and transactions are secured with either fingerprint or a six-digit PIN. The company says it will support debit or credit cards from Banco do Brasil, Nubank, and Sicredi. The payments are enabled by Facebook Pay.

Source- Reuters