The sleeping giant finally woke up. Visa, the most widely used brand in the world, announced the launch in Argentina of VisaNet, its payment processing network.
The move is framed after an intense 2018 in terms of the news of the local financial industry.
In the first place, the National Commission for the Defense of Competition (CNDC) demanded the deregulation of the card market, since only two companies concentrated the issuance and the acquisition, that is to say, the precessing of transactions.
Among them, was Prisma, made up of 14 of the most important banks in the country. The controller of the Banelco network exclusively issues Visa plastics and offers the Lapos collection terminals.
The company has just sold 51% of its shares to US group Advent for US $ 725 million, as part of the divestment process ordered by the CNDC.
His competition, First Data, handled Mastercard exclusively until a few months ago, when Prisma got the license to do so. It markets POSNet collection devices and launched contactless cards more than a year ago, which allow users to pay more quickly just by supporting them on a reader.
Secondly, during 2018 mobile payments broke, with the appearance of virtual wallets -MercadoPago, TodoPago and ValePEI, to name a few-, which offer the possibility of paying for purchases with QR codes.
The modality was a success. As indicated from Red Link to iProUP, the growth rate of these applications exceeds 500% per year. MercadoPago was the largest share: already used by more than one million Argentines.
To this we must add the great moment recorded by the technology-based financial: according to data from the Argentine Chamber of Fintech, the industry grows to 110% per year, in addition to generate 6,000 jobs directly and more than 90,000 indirectly.
With all these ingredients, Visa did not hesitate to bring its infrastructure to Argentina, with which it will boost the local digital payment ecosystem.
VisaNet allows its more than 3,300 million cards in the world to be used in 53 million stores and 2.7 million ATMs in more than 200 countries. And it is capable of processing more than 65,000 transactions per second.
Pay with what you want
In Argentina, Mastercard took advantage of the good moment of the digitalization of payments. Not only did he take the lead with contactless technology, but he teamed up with some local fintech: his cards are offered by Wilobank and Ualá, for example.
Just this month, with the appearance of Brubank, the digital banking of former Citi Juan Bruchou, Visa emerged in the Argentinean fintech scene. And, through Prisma, prepares the contactless revolution: the main banks are already starting to deliver the plastics.
However, the arrival of VisaNet points to more ambitious objectives: to enable all its arsenal of payment methods, some of which even have futuristic borders for the until now little-used Argentine market.
This is leveraged in the possibility of "multi-expertise", that is, the new POS equipment of Prisma and First Data may include VisaNet or other providers to process the collections.
"In the near future, Visa users and businesses will access more sophisticated services, such as digital wallets, direct payments between people and new solutions, such as the use of tokens for connected devices," says the company at the iProUP consultation .
These "tokens" make it possible for transactions to use information that refers to plastics without exposing sensitive data that could otherwise be used to clone cards or other frauds.
In this way, VisaNet analyzes the implementation of charges from cell phones, cars and smart watches. The firm affirms to iProUP that even the domestic appliances can be used to pay purchases in a non-contact manner.
For example, an intelligent refrigerator can combine the VisaNet platform and the app of a supermarket so that the user requests those foods as soon as they detect missing items, pay them through the screen of the appliance and receive them at home.
Likewise, the company opened this platform globally to independent programmers to enable them to develop payment solutions that are "embedded" in any type of device connected to the Internet.
However, the first step will be to enable contactless charges with the cell phone, as this technology allows a virtual wallet to contain the information of several cards and only have to support a phone with NFC in a terminal to pay.
In addition, it could mean the arrival in the country of the digital wallets of Internet giants that take advantage of this modality, such as Google Play, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, Visa partners in other countries.
"There are great opportunities for the adoption of new technologies and innovations in electronic payment media in Argentina, and we are committed to continuing to bring our products, services and solutions," the company remarks to iProUP.
But the company also has the free way to bet on its own payment service with QR, known as mVisa, which would compete mainly with MercadoPago. From Visa do not advance details "for strategic reasons".
"What I can say is that in Visa we are constantly analyzing and evaluating the needs and priorities for each market, and in continuous dialogue with the actors of the payment ecosystem to innovate and bring the best solutions to consumers and businesses", assures a high source of the signature to iProUP.
Paved road
The arrival of VisaNet is in tune with the deployment of the new payment terminals of Prisma and First Data, and their efforts to expand contactless charges.
With this technology, the customer "will no longer have to queue so long to sign a coupon and lose time at the point of sale," Agustín Parodi, purchasing products manager of Prisma's Medios de Pago division, told iProUP.
He adds: "It will change the whole process, but respecting the security standards, it will take a lot of time and completely change the flow of purchase with respect to what we are used to."
Prisma's plan will be to advance first with the businesses that "would get along better with the daily use of contactless, such as supermarkets and service stations", since the long lines would be avoided due to the streamlining of the process.
"This system does not require the signing of the voucher, nor display of the DNI for purchases of up to $ 1,000," reports Banco Macro, which has just announced that all renewals and reprints of its cards will have this technology since February.
The entity joins BBVA Francés and Galicia, which also informed this medium that they will offer "non-contact" plastics. It is estimated that in a first stage would reach 8% of all customers.
From the French add that priority will be given in a first stage of distribution of cards to its employees and to the highest categories of customers. In contrast, the "Classic" partners will receive them at the time of renewal.
The contactless revolution will reedit the fight between the most used payment terminals by the stores: LaPos, by Prisma; and POSNet, from the US First Data.
The latter announced at the end of 2018 its strong commitment to comprehensive charging systems that will accept contactless technology.
In fact, Argentina will be the first country in Latin America and fifth in the world (after the United States, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom) where it will introduce its Clover terminals.
These devices will have touch screens, Wi-Fi and 3G Internet connection and compatibility with cards with magnetic stripe, chip and contactless.
In addition, they will integrate software to monitor sales, manage personnel data and allow the installation of apps, in order to expand the functionalities of the team based on the information generated in the transactions.
With a million dollar bet, First Data Cono Sur expects to reach 200,000 adhered stores. To this end, it launched the Acceptors campaign, an online community of SMEs in which, through training, it promotes its terminals.
On the other hand, the rivalry between the two brands of credit cards inaugurated a battle front in the field of cryptocurrencies: both bid by the British company Earthport, but finally Mastercard won the race by offering US $ 307 million.
The company that acquired implements the Ripple platform to reduce and speed up cross-border payments without going through the banks. It is estimated that the international transfer market will amount to US $ 30,000 million over the next three years.
The future will come in the short term: cell phones, smartwatches, connected cars and even smart appliances will become wallets. And credit cards, at least in their "plastic" version, will continue their path to become something of the past.
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