Argentine Central Bank Defers Effective Date of QR Codes Interoperability

On August 31, 2023, the Argentine Central Bank (BCRA) issued Communique "A" 7831, extending 45 days the deadline for companies that offer merchants the possibility of accepting credit card payments through QR codes to make them interoperable, so that these codes can accept card payments from any digital wallet in the system.

Thus, this Communique defers the effective date of the obligation that had been established in point 10 of Communique "A" 7769, issued on May 18, 2023, which had  introduced major amendments to the digital payment vertical, especially for collection service providers.

The BCRA now determined that by September 1, 2023, any printed image, device, or terminal provided by an acquirer or aggregator allowing credit card payments through QR code has to:

• Accept payments with transfer on the same QR displayed when the acquirer or aggregator also accepts payments with transfer.
• Allow any interoperable e-wallet in the Register of Interoperable Digital Wallets to pay with the associated credit cards, if stores accept them, through the corresponding aggregator or acquirer.