Brazil ’ s central bank said Tuesday it had ordered Visa and Mastercard to suspend a joint project with WhatsApp to roll out digital payments within the popular messaging service , over fears it would be anti - competitive .
Brazil , which has the second - most WhatsApp users worldwide after India , was the pilot country for the platform’ s new integrated payments feature , which it launched on June 15 with an eye to rolling it out worldwide .
But the central bank , which regulates payment systems in Brazil , put the new feature on hold indefinitely .
“ The reason for the central bank ’ s decision is to preserve an adequate competitive environment , ensuring an interoperable , fast , secure , transparent , open and economical payment system , ” it said in a statement .
It also cited data privacy concerns .
WhatsApp , which is owned by Facebook , is the most popular mobile messaging app in the world , with more than 1 . 5 billion monthly users globally , according to market tracker Statistica .
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