Ant International, a global provider of digital payment, digitisation, and FinAI solutions, has announced that it has received a Payment Institution (PI) licence from the Central Bank of Brazil.

The licence authorises Ant International to operate as a regulated payment institution in the country and marks a significant step in the company’s expansion across Latin America’s largest economy. Securing a central bank licence places the company within the same regulatory framework that governs Brazil’s licensed payment institutions, a status that global payment providers pursuing the market typically need in order to offer local services directly.

“With the Central Bank’s invaluable support, we are ready to step up more reliable and comprehensive global payment and account services to enterprises, platforms and SMEs in the country’s dynamic digital economy, in ever deeper collaboration with its highly developed payments ecosystem and financial services industry,” said Rodrigo Reif, General Manager, Ant International Brazil.

Ant International provides cross-border payments and account services, embedded credit and treasury services, and other FinAI and blockchain solutions to clients across Asia, Europe and the Americas. The company processes over 20 million transactions daily, connecting 2 billion consumer accounts to 150 million global merchants via its digital payment ecosystem. The Brazilian licence extends this network into a market where cross-border commerce and digital payments have grown rapidly, and where global payment providers have increasingly sought local licensing to serve merchants and platforms directly.

The PI licence builds on the services Ant International already offers in the Brazilian market through Antom, its merchant payment and digitalisation platform, which enables merchants to accept PIX, credit cards, and a wide variety of alternative payment methods. PIX is the instant payment system launched by the Central Bank of Brazil in 2020, which has since become one of the most widely used payment methods in the country. Its widespread adoption has made local payment-method coverage a baseline requirement for payment providers serving Brazilian merchants.

The licence is expected to strengthen Ant International’s local and cross-border payment capabilities in Brazil, deepening its collaboration with the country’s payments ecosystem and financial services industry. With the licence in place, the company is positioned to broaden the range of regulated services it can offer locally, building on its existing Antom merchant payments business.

Source: GlobalFinTechSeries