Brazilian Authorities Suspend WhatsApp Payments
- Central bank wants to assess risks to country’s payment system
- Lawyer says suspension is an unusual move by the bank
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Brazil’s Central Bank and antitrust regulator suspended Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp messenger payment features in the country, the app’s second-biggest market with more than 120 million users.
The bank decision aims to “preserve an adequate competitive environment, that ensures the functioning of a payment system that’s interchangeable, fast, secure, transparent, open and cheap,” the monetary authority said in a statement on its website. Bank authorities requested that Mastercard Inc. and Visa Inc. stop payment and money transfer activities through the app.