With cell phone internet, telephony operators bank 11 million

Telephone operators included 100 million customers in the positive cadastre, a database with the financial history of Brazilians, and thanks to this, at least 11 million — the equivalent of the population of Belgium — began to use financial services for the first time.

The data were presented this Tuesday (3) during the Telebrasil Panel, the main telecommunications event promoted by Conéxis, the operators’ association.

The survey by the ANBC (National Association of Credit Bureaus) shows that, since July 2019, when the registration came into force in the country, there are already 235 million Brazilians registered, which made the spreads in credit operations fall ten percentage points. , according to the Central Bank.

This fall was planned by the BC, which, in 2017, began to implement a series of measures to stimulate banking competition and expand the inclusion of Brazilians in the financial system.

Previously, banks did not share customer credit information (payment history) with each other. With the positive registration, which came into effect in July 2019, the system began to be consulted by institutions interested in offering credit.

The result was an increase in competition with more advantageous offers for customers. Therefore, there was a reduction of interest at the tip, according to the BC.

To expand the use of the registry, the BC designed a strategy of inclusion of records that began with financial institutions. In this first stage, 124 million Brazilians were added — practically all of them banked (with access to financial services).

Operators joined in July 2020 and, according to ANBC, added another 100 million new registrations by March this year.

In the first quarter of this year, energy distributors are expected to enter with 85 million customer registrations.

Basic sanitation companies and gas distributors will end this cycle with the inclusion of another 52.7 million records. The membership has not yet been set, according to ANBC.

In the case of telephone operators, about 11% of new registrations had never used a bank.

“It’s a Belgium included [ao sistema bancário]. These are people and companies that were not seen before [pelas instituições financeiras]”, said Elias Sfeir, president of ANBC. “Registration leads to lower interest rates and allows more resources to be available [para crédito].

Although most of the new registrations were concentrated in the Southeast and South regions, the inclusion of new registrations by telecoms and banks improved the credit supply in the North and Northeast regions.

“With this survey, you can see how they were in the dark before,” Sfeir said.

While in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the average number of registered inhabitants is around 75%, in the North and Northeast states it is 40%.

During the event, the deputy head of Competition and Market Structure at the Central Bank, Carlos Brandt, highlighted the importance of mobile internet provision for the success of the regulator’s pro-competition agenda.

Brandt stated that, thanks to the widespread use of cell phones, Pix, an instant payment system, has already reached 50 million users, generating savings of R$25 billion for Brazilians – both for the customer and for the banks involved in the system, which was released by BC.

According to him, Pix allowed small entrepreneurs to expand their sales, generating income.

“Popsicle vendors on the beach tripled their sales because they no longer need to carry change, food delivery apps increased their sales by 40%,” Brandt said.

Despite this growth, the head of the BC stated that the movement of credit and debit cards is still on the rise. Banks predicted losses due to the competition of instant payments with TEDs and DOCs, transfers between accounts with clearing intervals and charged to each customer.