João Del Valle, EBANX: "The overwhelming majority of Brazilian consumers prefer to pay with local credit cards and Boleto Bancario"

There is no doubt that Brazil is one of the biggest markets for ecommerce around the world. In fact the country represents almost 70% of all online purchases in Latin America.

However, the entrance to this market is far from straightforward. There are a lot of cultural aspects and government regulations to be aware of. One example is the widespread use of local payment methods, such as domestic credit cards and Boleto Bancario.

These methods have far more reach than international credit cards. The latter is just available to around 30% of the population, while Boleto Bancario, for example, can reach 100% of the buyers.

Another clear advantage of local payment methods is the IOF (Brazilian Tax over Financial Operations) rate. The overwhelming majority of Brazilian consumers prefer to pay with local credit cards and Boleto Bancario because the IOF currently drops from 6.38% to 0.38% when using local methods.

Boleto Bancario is an extremely popular payment method regulated by the Brazilian Federation Banks (Federação Brasileira de Bancos - FEBRABAN), and gives the consumer the security of cash payments. Typical uses include online purchases, mortgage payments and utility bills.

Boletos can be paid in cash at any bank or using online banking. It reaches 100% of Brazil and can be used also by unbanked people, since it does not require a bank account.

Boleto Bancario is a financial document that is issued by a bank. That enables the client to pay the exact specified amount to the receiving party (merchant), as long as within the due date period. This is a consumer-driver payment method. The consumer initiates the purchase online and can pay the Boleto at many locations, such as any bank agency, lottery shops, supermarkets or post office. .

• Bank: financial institution responsible for the issuing and collection based on agreement between the merchant and itself. The bank, once authorized to collect payment for the Merchant, will credit the amount paid by the Client in the Merchants bank account.
• Pagador (Consumer): the individual or company that pays the Boleto.
• Beneficiário (The Merchant): the individual or company that issues the Boleto and whose account will be credited.

A Boleto Bancario document will always include:

1) Issuing Bank: the Bank responsible for issuing the Boleto.

2) Beneficiary name

3) Buyer: the name of the buyer with a CPF (Brazilian tax ID).

4) Boleto Full Code: a code that contains all the relevant information about the Boleto, such as amount and beneficiary bank account. This will allow the bank to credit the right account. This field is used in home banking and self-service banking. This code is also represented as a bar code in the bottom of the Boleto.

5) Expiring Date

6) EBANX Bank Account

7) The unique code identifying this Boleto

8) Total Amount

Benefits:

More customers, more sales. By using Boleto Bancario, all merchants that want to sell to Brazil can reach a significant portion of the population, especially the C and D classes, considering that most of the people in Brazil do not have a credit card, or have a low limit on their cards.

Another advantage is that Boleto makes fraud virtually impossible and is not subject to chargebacks. Once the payment has been made it is final and may only be reverted by bank transfer. The fraud risk of online purchases using Boleto Bancario is extremely low when compared to credit cards. In 2013, EBANX, one of the largest Boleto Bancario processors in Brazil, had a fraud rate of only 0.003%.

For merchants that are not incorporated in Brazil, BoletoBancario.com provides its services through an exclusive partnership with EBANX.

EBANX is a payment services provider specialized in local payment methods in Latin America. Global merchants can connect to EBANX to collect payments through forms such as Boleto Bancário and domestic bank transfer.

• Gives the consumer the security of cash payments (no risk of chargebacks);
• Accepted all across the country;
• The most common way to receive payments from the government and large companies;
• As most people in Brazil don’t have international credit cards, providing Boleto as a payment method helps to increase significantly online store sales;
• The system is secure (has no sensitive information such as passwords traffic);
• Simple integration platform.

About the Author

João Del Valle is Chief Technology Officer at EBANX / BoletoBancario.com. He holds a MSc in Computer Science (EMN/France), an MBA in Strategic Business Management (FGV/Brazil) and has over 15 years of experience in systems development and operations. At EBANX, João oversees product development, merchant integration and IT operations.

Company Profile

BoletoBancario.com is in the payment processing and integration business since 2000, delivering remarkable payment solutions for the Brazilian market. For international customers, in partnership with EBANX, we provide the definitive Boleto Bancario payment method: Boleto Bancario EBANX.

Boleto Bancario EBANX is a payment method tailored for international e-merchants willing to receive payments from Brazilian customers. We collect locally in Brazil and pay you in your country.