“While many retailers are looking to offer financial services, the reverse is also true: fintechs are also moving towards e-commerce. The reason lies in the quest for retention and recurrence. In other words: it is not enough to have a digital account, the user has to engage. With this in mind, Nubank announced this Tuesday the launch of a shopping section with different shops, also marking the digital bank’s entry into e-commerce. The move is similar to the one recently made by another digital bank, Inter, which this year launched the InterShop marketplace within the app.”

“The third phase of the Open Banking initiative in Brazil goes live today (October 29), introducing services such as Pix, the country’s instant payment system…The current phase aims to enable the introduction of new environments for making payments and, subsequently, new dynamics for credit operations. After instant payments , other capabilities to be introduced under the third phase will include services such as transfers between accounts of the same institution, direct debits and credit proposals.”

“Cybersource, a Visa solution, and Ebanx, global payments fintech company that specializes in Latin America, announced a new partnership for payments in Brazil. From now on, Cybersource’s clients around the world will be able to access EBANX’s payment solutions for Brazil, and offer their customers in the country the ability to pay online for products and services with local payment methods, including domestic debit cards, credit cards and installments.”

“According to a new study, the majority of Brazilian consumers still feel uncertain about sharing their banking data in exchange for better deals and benefits such as personalized offers under the open banking model. Open banking — a practice that allows third party financial services firms to access consumer banking, transactional and other data from through, and other data with their consent through application programming interfaces (APIs) — is being introduced in Brazil through a phased approach.“

“The Central Bank (BC) postponed to June of 2022 the deadline for open banking participants to define their definitive governance structure. The announcement was made on Wednesday (6). The initial deadline was the 25th of this month, and the extension, according to the autarchy, was due to changes in the schedule of the initial phases of open banking implementation in the country — and also due to the increase in its scope, with the inclusion of products such as investments and insurance.”

“The Chinese marketplace AliExpress ( Android , iOS ) opened its platform to Brazilian sellers and brings to the country two well-known companies of the Alibaba group: AliPay portfolio and logtech Cainiao (newcomer, in Chinese translation).”

“Brazilian Central Bank announced on Thursday that it will incorporate the payment initiator service to the Central Bank’s backed real-time payments system PIX . In practice, it will be another alternative for P2P transfers and e-commerce transactions made through the instant payment system. With payment initiators, it will be possible, for example, to buy something at the delivery app iFood and pay with PIX without having to leave the app to paste the QR code into the bank’s app (an example considering that iFood could obtain the PIX payment initiator license).”

“SoftBank-backed delivery app Rappi is launching credit cards for its users in Brazil, expanding its financial products portfolio as competition in the payments sector heats up in Latin America. Rappi partnered with payments company Visa Inc to offer the credit cards, marking the two companies’ fourth such collaboration in Latin America, following similar launches in Mexico, Colombia and Peru. Rappi also plans to expand financial services in its remaining five markets.”

“Caixa Econômica Federal (“CAIXA”) and Fiserv, Inc (NASDAQ: FISV), a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology, today completed the first payment transaction for a merchant as part of the companies’ recently signed merchant acquiring services agreement. The transaction was completed via the Caixa-branded point-of-sale terminal, “Maquininha CAIXA Pagamentos.””

“The Amazon subsidiary in Brazil confirmed that its users will be able to use PIX as a form of payment in a short time.  The announcement was made by Daniel Mazini, general manager of Amazon Brazil, after being asked about the implementation of PIX in e-commerce during a press conference.  Beyond confirmation in Pix’s implementation plans, the executive did not disclose the launch date of the tool or give details about it.  The incorporation of this popular payment method completes its offer against its direct rival, Mercado Libre. The latter, more than a month ago, has incorporated the Central Bank’s means of payment as one of its options.”

“dLocal, a technology-first payments platform that enables global enterprise merchants to connect with billions of consumers in emerging countries, today announced a new milestone. The new agreement enables non-domestic merchants, for the first time, to sell their products in Brazil on Amazon’s online store using dLocal’s new marketplace solution. With dLocal, Amazon can now pay its amazon.com.br international sellers their revenue share in USD. This agreement opens the Amazon.com.br online store in an unprecedented way to international sellers, enabling them to sell their goods in Brazil, speeding both time-to-market and minimizing operational costs, enabling easier access to the Brazilian customers.”

“FLEETCOR Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: FLT), a leading global business payments company, today announced the signing of a joint venture in Brazil between its local subsidiaries and CAIXA, the country’s largest bank. FLEETCOR® partnered with VR Benefícios, a Brazilian leader in meal and food vouchers, on the joint venture to meet the product requirements in the agreement. The 20-year joint venture agreement exclusively provides CAIXA’s customers the most comprehensive portfolio of electronic payment solutions including automatic toll tags, fuel cards, transportation vouchers and food vouchers.”

“Starting today, Mastercard cardholders in Brazil can send and receive money to and from friends and family through WhatsApp. Mastercard debit cardholders with cards issued by Banco Inter, Itaú, Nubank and Sicredi will be able to use the innovative P2P WhatsApp service. The payments service on WhatsApp is enabled by Facebook Pay and processed by Facebook Pagamentos and Cielo. The announcement comes after the Brazil Central Bank officially granted a Payment Initiator license to Facebook Pagamentos do Brasil Ltda and approved Mastercard’s new transfer scheme. Additional banking partners are expected to join the program soon.”

“The Central Bank once again postponed the start of operations at Pix Cobrança, now to July 1st. The BC released on Thursday, 22, also, a new change in the regulation of Pix Cobrança: institutions that are unable to offer all the services of the modality between May 14th to June 30th will have to, at least, allow the reading QR Code and payment on the same date, with all charges and rebates calculated correctly. According to the decision, the period is a transition period and will allow institutions to adapt. From July 1, it will be mandatory that everyone is able to read the QR Code and make payments possible for a future date.”

“Cielo reported this week that it has partnered with Google to digitize small and medium-sized businesses in Brazil. According to the payment company, the project can reach more than 600,000 businesses, who will have access to create a digital profile, open an online store and create online advertising campaigns. The agreement illustrates Cielo’s growing efforts to expand into the smaller retail market.”