The new rules of the Brazilian Central Bank for card receivables registration and negotiation came into effect this week. From now on, all payments by card will be registered in a unified central system, which certifies the existence of receivables, allowing the creditor to use these future payments as a guarantee for obtaining cheaper credit.
The new rules will directly impact the anticipation of receivables, and the credit offer to micro, small and medium-sized companies, a market with the potential to handle trillions, which may be explored by banks, fintechs, receivable funds, and others. According to the Central Bank’s data, the anticipation of receivables handles around BRL 50 billion per month.
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The biggest change brought about by the Central Bank’s new resolution is that shopkeepers will now be able to organize and share their receivables schedule and negotiate it with more than one institution at the same time, increasing their credit limit. This is because institutions will only be able to retain as warranty the volume of receivables equivalent to the amount borrowed, instead of retaining the entire flow of receivables from the merchant, even if the amount borrowed was smaller, as usually was. In other words, a considerable volume of money that was retained before will be unlocked.
The monetary authority expects more competition in the receivables segment, reducing the spread and increasing the volume of credit granting, especially for small and medium-sized companies, which depend more on guarantees to obtain loans.
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Registrars will be the interface between SMEs and credit institutions
For the operationalization of receivables registration, the Central Bank authorized some companies to operate as registrars – the Câmara Interbancária de Pagamentos (CIP), the Central de Recebíveis (CERC), and TAG. Receivables data will be sent to registrars through acquirers chosen by the merchant.
The registrars will work as a kind of interface between the credit institutions and the merchant who wants to obtain credit using their receivables as warranty. Upon authorization of the merchant, registrars may provide access to receivables data to any institution.
The Central Bank argues that the unified registration system also brings more security to the credit institutions, since the registrars will have the role of receiving the merchant’s receivables trading contracts, controlling the priority order of the contracts and ensuring that the same receivable does not be traded twice.
