WhatsApp Payments now available in Brazil; company announces gradual rollout

The Messaging App has released an announcement about the activation of WhatsApp Payments in Brazil. "Over 10 million SMBs are the heartbeat of Brazil’s communities. Now in addition to viewing a store’s catalogue, customers will be able to send payments for products as well. We know that you were waiting for this. Payments on WhatsApp starts to be available today in Brazil", the company stated.

Only last year, the company had rolled out the feature in India and Brazil. But due to some complications with the Central Bank of Brazil, WhatsApp had to take down the feature. The Central bank alleged that WhatsApp payments would hurt banks and the local digital payment ecosystem in the country.

Only today, the Brazilian government has given its nod to send and receive payments in the country via WhatsApp. The feature comes in line with Facebook Pay. Reasoning the idea, the company states, "In the future we want to make it possible for people and businesses to use the same card information across Facebook’s family of apps."

"We have built payments with security in mind. Users will need a special six-digit PIN or fingerprint to prevent unauthorized transactions. To start, we will support debit or credit cards from Banco do Brasil, Nubank, and Sicredi on the Visa and Mastercard networks. We are also working with Cielo, the leading payments processor in Brazil. We have also built an open model to welcome more partners in the future," it added.

Verify if you have the feature

Open any chat and tap the chat share menu. If you see a payments action, the feature is available for your WhatsApp account.

Sending money or making a purchase on WhatsApp is free for people. Although, businesses will pay a processing fee to receive customer payments, similar to what they may already pay when accepting a credit card transaction.

More countries will be eligible to receive WhatsApp Payments in the future, for example, Mexico, UK and Spain.