Chile: Congress strikes at card payment monopoly

Chile’s congress, through its Economics Commission, has approved a proposal by Commission president Eugenio Tuma and Senator Manuel José Ossandón, seeking to end the monopoly in card payment transactions currently held by Transbank. The bill, the authors say, hopes to bring greater competition to the sector and to the country’s economy overall.

“The concentration of Chile’s banking market is unlike anywhere else. Banks charge more because of lack of competition, and their profits are even larger than those of the US market” declared Sen. Tuma, before adding that the technology required to safely carry out transactions over the phone already exists, but is so far absent from Chile’s market due to administrative barriers directly attributed to Transbank.

The Commission’s proposal establishes, among other things, the right for consumers to have access to safe payment options; a ban on banks from erecting any barriers, setting artificial operating charges or preventing the entry of third parties approved by the country’s Economics Superintendence to operate a transfer interface and must, if given the case, treat said operations as part of their own structure.

Source: La Nación

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