Brasilia (AFP)
The Central Bank of Brazil announced on Tuesday that it had ordered Visa and Mastercard to suspend their plans for a digital payment service via Facebook's WhatsApp messaging service due to fears for free competition.
This payment service was set up on June 15 in Brazil, the country with the second largest number of WhatsApp users in the world behind India. It was the first time that WhatsApp was used as a means of payment.
Facebook intends to make this service gradually available on its entire family of applications, including Instagram, and in other countries. The social media giant launched its "Facebook Pay" portfolio in November, starting with the United States on the main platform and Messenger, its other messaging service.
But the Central Bank of Brazil, which regulates payment systems, has announced the suspension of the service on WhatsApp for an indefinite period.
"The reason for the central bank's decision is to maintain an adequate competitive environment, by ensuring the interoperability, speed, security, transparency and the open and economic nature of the payment system," said the institute. 'program.
The central bank also expressed concern about the confidentiality of the data collected.
WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted messaging, used by more than 1.5 billion people around the world every month, according to Statistica.
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