Electronic payments in Brazil - A telecom business, more than a bank one

Brazil  has just published a provisional measure (which has the force of a  bill) that regulates electronic payments in the country (link to the Portuguese text).

Brazilians already make heavy use of credit and debit cards. So, this is not the news.

What is new is that the new rules put electronic payment providers under the control supervision of the Brazilian Central Bank. Think of pay pal, bitcoin, small credit card companies, etc.

The credit card giants, such as Visa and Master Card, will also be subject to a higher degree of supervision. It is like they were integrated to the Brazilian bank system.

This has some benefits, such as a higher level of security, as well as disadvantages, such as more bureaucracy and elevation of costs.

The rules are very broad, and will depend heavily of further regulations to be issued by Brazilian Central Bank.

A central point, that many people might have overseen, is that electronic payment by cell phone have been clearly described as a joint responsibility of the Brazilian Central Bank and the Brazilian Telecom Agency (Anatel).

So, I will probably be posting about a joint rule to be issued by Anatel and the Central Bank very soon.

A curious fact: I have been receiving calls from providers of electronic payments software since last year. Probably, the telecom operators already knew about the new rules and started asking for proposals abroad.

They were well informed! The rules are finally here.

If you also want to sell your payment software in Brazil, I'd recommend you to read about taxation of software in Brazil.

What do you think about it?