On February 24, 2022, by means of Communication “A” 7462 (the “Communication 7462”) and Communication “A” 7463 (the “Communication 7463”), the Central Bank amended the regulations on “Payment Service Providers” and defined the “Digital Wallet” service.
Communication “A” 7462 defined the Digital Wallet service as the service offered by a financial entity or a Proveedor de Servicios de Pago (PSP) through an application in a mobile device or in a web browser that must allow making payments with transfer (PCT) and/or with other payment instruments (debit/credit, purchase or prepaid cards). Ac-counts debited for payment instruments may be provided (1) by the same financial entity or proveedor de servicios de pago que ofrece cuentas de pago (PSPCP) that provides the Digital Wallet service; and/or (2) by other financial entities and/or PSPs, when the Digital Wallet service provider only performs the initiation function.
In turn, it was established that PSPs that perform the initiation function without providing payment accounts and provide the digital wallet service must:
Verify the identity of the persons requesting such service, stating names and surnames, place and date of birth, domicile, occupation, marital status and Politically Exposed Person status. Comply with associating to the digital wallets only those payment instruments whose holder coincides with the holder of the digital wallet; and arbitrate mechanisms of identification and authentication of the user to access the digital wallet.
The deadline for these provisions to be implemented and operative is 05/01/2022 for new customers and 06/01/2022 for users of this service at the time of issuance of the communication.
As regards registration in the Registry of Payment Service Providers, it was added that the copy of the corporate agreement or by-laws must be submitted together with the proof of registration by the competent corporate control authority in the public registry of the corresponding jurisdiction and of all its amendments.
In turn, for PSPCPs, the following must be included in the operational and commercial description:
PSPCPs shall indicate if they will provide the Digital Wallet service. Those PSPs and PSPCPs that provide the Digital Wallet service must specify whether such service will allow initiating payments through the reading of QR codes and detail with which instruments they may be made. PSPs must inform the payment schemes in which they participate in initiating operations.
The “Registro de Billeteras Digitales Interoperables” was also created. Any PSP wishing to provide a Digital Wallet service that allows making transfer payments initiated by reading QR codes must be registered in the “Registro de Billeteras Digitales Interoperables”.
The administrators of immediate funds transfer schemes shall prepare and provide to any financial institution and PSP that so requires, a procedure manual that allows them to integrate their Digital Wallets with the transfer pay-ment acceptors of their respective schemes.
In no case may they enable an acceptor to receive transfer payments initiated with QR codes, if they have not veri-fied that such codes can be read by all financial institutions and PSPs providing the Digital Wallet service registered in the BCRA registry.
It was also stipulated that the PSPCPs that have managed the registration in the current registry must update -within 90 calendar days after the date that the Deputy General Manager of Systems and Organization shall disclose- the information related to the Operational and Commercial Description2.
Finally, PSPs that must complete the application for registration in the Register of Payment Service Providers for the first time due to the extension of their scope must do so within 90 calendar days after the date informed by the Deputy General Manager of Systems and Organization.
Through Communication “A” 7463 the Central Bank established the new technical requirements for Proveedores de Servicios de Pago and financial entities that offer such service, and established that, within 180 days from the date of issuance of the resolution, these provisions must be implemented.
The technical requirements are:
Enable the technical means so that the holder of the Digital Wallet can give his consent in a simple and im-mediate way at the time of a demand or payment account. Verify that the consent given by the customer through the Digital Wallet is in force during any payment ins-truction. Provide the holder with the possibility of establishing parameters for the use of the digital wallet services, allowing easy viewing, modification and disengagement (especially in the event of suspicion of fraud).
In turn, each immediate transfer scheme should:
Identify the responsibilities of each participant and the relationship with the rest of the schemes involved for fraud management. Customer service is the responsibility of the provider of the affected account. Support its fraud analysis with tools that allow the identification of suspicious patterns.
Establish procedures for the resolution of claims.
1- Initiation: sending a valid payment instruction at the request of an ordering customer to the provider of a payment or demand account or issuer of a payment instrument. 2- To be registered in the Interoperable Digital Wallet Registry, you must: (1) Be registered as a PSPCP or PSI; (2) Submit: A – Certification issued by the legal representative of each immediate transfer scheme administrator authorized by the Central Bank stating that the service has successfully completed the integration with each of the acceptors adhered to its scheme and that it is ready to be used by the general public to make payments by means of transfers through the reading of QR codes. This certification shall be issued within 5 business days as from the completion of the tests proving the referred integration. B – Names and surnames, position, type and number of identity and e-mail address of the maximum responsible for the tasks of: (1) “technology and information system”, and of (2) “information and asset protection”. b.i. Location of the main and alternate processing centers. b.ii. List of vendors providing information technology, systems, and information security services. Once these requirements have been met, the Superintendency of Financial and Exchange Entities will issue a certificate of registration and will grant the applicant a “Registro de Billeteras Digitales Interoperables” number. Receipt of this certificate is a condition for providing the Digital Wallet service.
