The president of the Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto, says that Pix could have the function of a credit card from the end of 2025. In an interview with Sheethe anticipates that the new financial instrument is already under development by the institution's technology area and will be an advancement in the use of the payment method in Brazil.
“You wouldn't need to have the card anymore, you could do the credit card function directly with the bank”, he says. According to him, this evolutionary agenda is in planning, but it cannot be done in the short term and will depend on continuity in the next administration. Campos Neto's mandate ends on December 31st.
According to the head of the BC, the instrument will facilitate the guarantee of credit for companies at a cheaper cost. “With this platform, the bank can discount its own risk rate. It will make it a lot cheaper for the retailer in terms of how much discount they have to give to receive the money up front”, he states.
The president of the BC explained that today, when the consumer buys in installments and the retailer makes an advance on the receivable flow, the risk lies with the bank issuing the card. “But, as the store owner really needs that money, he makes the advance at a discount rate that is much higher than the bank's risk rate”, he says.
According to him, Pix with the credit card function can help reduce the cost of advances that the retailer has for installments to be received.
In the final stretch of his mandate, Campos Neto assesses that the GT (Working Group) of the banking spread “clearly” should have representatives from the BC. The banking spread is the difference between the interest charged by banks when lending money and the interest paid by them to raise funds.
The GT was created by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) last month, after a meeting with bankers, at Palácio do Planalto, at a time of a cycle of rising basic interest rates (Selic) – today at 11.15% per year.
“The banking spread has some things that we identified some time ago and had difficulty combating”, says the head of the monetary authority.
One of the problems identified is the low credit recovery in Brazil. When the volume of credit to be recovered is low, many banks stop going after customers to recover the money. Not only is recovery low, but the process is time-consuming.
Among the countries that have worse credit recovery than Brazil, according to Campos Neto, are Zimbabwe, Turkey, Burundi, Venezuela and Haiti. “[O banco] He charges more, because there is more uncertainty”, he states.
As revealed by Sheetthe banking spread GT is studying a proposal to allow companies to use the future revenue stream with Pix as a guarantee for bank loans.
In Campos Neto's assessment, the use of Pix as a receivable will require technology that is capable of blocking flows in reverse. “We have this in mind to be developed. This same technology that would make it possible to have receivables from the credit card function within Pix”, he says.
For this to happen, financial institutions will need to have a way to enter Pix that guarantees the amount will be blocked.
According to the BC president, a technological improvement will need to be made within the instant payment instrument platform itself in order to allow this reverse blocking. “This would also allow us to cover this part of receivables as collateral”, he states.
INTEREST-FREE INSTALLMENTS
For the BC president, the debate about the impact of interest-free installments on credit card transactions will end up returning in the future. Last year, the issue came on the radar during discussions about credit card revolving and exposed divergences between the different links in the credit chain, but a redesign of the modality was ruled out.
“It's a very difficult issue to resolve because it's a culture that is already established in the way people consume, and I think this will be discussed again at some point,” he says.
In his assessment, the risk added to the system with installments stabilized after the changes adopted in revolving credit. Campos Neto made it clear, however, that this discussion is not linked to the development of the credit function at Pix.
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