The social media platform has filed for two licenses with the Brazilian central bank, Reuters reported Tuesday (March 31), citing two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
The first would let TikTok serve as an “electronic money issuer,” providing prepaid accounts for users to hold balances, receive funds and make payments within the app.
The second would make TikTok a “direct credit company,” allowing it to lend money or connect borrowers with lenders, but without the permission to take public deposits.
Reuters notes that this move, if it wins approval, would let TikTok bring a suite of basic financial services in Brazil, taking a page from Nubank, the country’s largest digital bank.
Executives from TikTok parent ByteDance, including Head of Global Payments Baohua Liao, met with Central Bank of Brazil President Gabriel Galipolo on Tuesday, Reuters reported, citing Liao’s public calendar.
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PYMNTS has contacted ByteDance for comment but has not yet gotten a reply.
The report points out that ByteDance launched Douyin Pay in China in 2021 to bolster eCommerce on the Chinese version of TikTok.
TikTok also tried to obtain a payments license in Indonesia in 2023, but was blocked from processing transactions directly on its platform later that year, causing it to seek out local partnerships, the report added.
According to the report, this push into Brazil is part of a larger regional expansion by TikTok, which said last year it would invest $38.4 billion to construct a data center in the country, which is known for its high levels of social media activity.
PYMNTS wrote earlier this year about the continued embrace of digital financial services in Brazil and the rest of Latin America.
Digital wallets, account-to-account transfers and real-time payment systems have started to supplant cash, leading to a modernization of commerce and offering access to formal financial services, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Digital Developments: Charting Digital Payment Growth in Latin America.”
“The shift is structural rather than cyclical,” PYMNTS wrote in January. “The report found that experts predict that by 2030, digital payments will account for roughly two-thirds of eCommerce transaction value and nearly half of point-of-sale value across the region, reflecting sustained changes in consumer behavior rather than short-term substitution.”
As for Brazil, the country has reached roughly 94% digital adoption, per PYMNTS Intelligence, with digital payments now serving as core infrastructure rather than emerging technology.
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