Whoever wins elections, digitization process will continue, says Visa president

The process of digitizing financial habits, which has gained even more strength with the pandemic, should continue over the next year, regardless of who wins the country’s elections, according to Nuno Lopes Alves, president of the Visa card network in Brazil.

“We do not take a political stand, but what we see is that, regardless of the government and the macroeconomic scenario, the digitization movement will continue and that means opportunities”, says the executive in an interview with Sheet.

Alves adds that the country has solid institutions and sees no risk to democracy related to the electoral process.

According to him, the space for the growth of means of payment companies depends much more on the level of sophistication of the economy and society in relation to access to electronic commerce in general than on the electoral or macroeconomic framework.

Estimates from Abecs (Brazilian Association of Credit Card and Services Companies) cited by the president of Visa indicate that the level of consumption of Brazilian families via electronic payment means will reach around 60% by the end of this year.

There are, however, differences between regions, with much lower percentages in cities further away from large capitals. “There’s still plenty of room for that door [da digitalização] grow up. There are several verticals to be penetrated”, says Alves.

He also states that, even with the resumption of face-to-face activities, digital habits that have been adopted in the last two years should remain.

“When people stopped listening to CDs and started using streaming, they didn’t get tired of streaming and went back to buying CDs. The same thing happened with subscription movies, people didn’t rent VCRs again. Digitization has an evolutionary direction.”

Pix is ​​positive in increasing the size of the potential market, says executive

The president of Visa in Brazil also praises the development and large-scale adoption of Pix by the Brazilian population.

Again citing estimates from Abecs, of which he is one of the vice presidents, Alves says that, of the total Pix users, around 13% did not have any type of electronic payment method until the tool was launched, and another 13% had access to these services, but did not use them.

July data from the BC (Central Bank) indicated that Pix, launched in November 2020, had already reached the mark of approximately 130 million users.

According to Alves, 26% of Pix users were not digitalized and the instant payments tool plays a role in financial and digital inclusion. “Once in this space, this audience becomes permeable to other offers”, he says.

The executive also says that, depending on the disposition of the global regulatory bodies regarding the adoption of new technologies, the financial movement tool developed by the Brazilian Central Bank may in the future add new services that go beyond the country’s borders, allowing, for For example, a person in Brazil makes a transfer through Pix to someone who will receive the amount on a Visa card, even if they are in another country.

“This is the concept of the network of networks. Any network that expands our capacity and gives us more visibility on our transactions is good news, because we end up having value-added services on these transactions”, says the president of Visa in Brazil .

Visa has projects with crypto assets and digital real

The executive says that the company has increasingly integrated its platforms with the world of crypto assets and cites a project in partnership with Microsoft, which was one of nine selected by BC to test the effectiveness of the digital real.

The idea of ​​the project, he says, is to allow small rural producers to finance themselves through different investors who can be anywhere in the world, using a kind of universal adapter based on the blockchain network that will convert the currencies of different countries. , and even crypto assets, converting them to the digital real.