New Interoperable Digital Wallets Regulations for Credit Card Payments with QR Codes

On May 30, 2024, the Argentine Central Bank (BCRA) issued Communication ‘A’ 8032 establishing new regulations applicable to entities providing interoperable digital wallet services regarding liability in cases of fraud, terminal readability, and fees.

First, through this Communication, the BCRA informed that, in case of fraud through a credit card payment initiated reading a QR code from an interoperable digital wallet, the liability will be assumed by the entity providing the digital wallet service.

Nevertheless, the Communication establishes three exceptions:

1. When the wallet processes the payment with the card’s brand requirements and technical standards of tokenization and authentication.
2. When the technical requirements and standards the card brand establishes were implemented by all the parts of the transaction except for the acquirer or aggregator who, in this case, will be liable.
3. When issuers, wallets, and/or acquirers/aggregators have agreed otherwise.

When payments initiated from interoperable digital wallets with QR code scanning have been disputed or fraudulent, acquirers may not be debited or charged back, except for the cases in item 2.

Second, and following the objective of QR interoperability for credit card payments, the BCRA established that any interoperable digital wallet that allows credit card payments by reading QR codes must be able to allow the QR code to be read from any printed image, device, or terminal provided by any acquirer or aggregator.

Third, through this Communication the BCRA provided that Payment Service Providers or Financial Entities that provide the interoperable digital wallet service from which the payment with QR has been initiated to pay by credit card, but have not issued the credit card used, may charge the credit card issuer a fee of up to 0.07% of the transaction amount.

The BCRA expanded the scope of this Communication and of Communication “A” 7769, commented here, to payments made with prepaid cards as of February 25, 2025.

The Communication will be effective as of July 29, 2024.