8/30/2021
Created with the objective of increasing the efficiency and competitiveness of the retail payments market, as an alternative to TED, DOC and credit cards transactions, PIX, an instant payments tool idealized by the Central Bank of Brazil, through which the transmission of the payment order and the availability of funds for the receiving user occurs in real time and whose service is available 24 hours a day, has been rapidly gaining adherence since its launch.
As a side effect of the tool’s agility, more and more Brazilians have been facing an unusual situation: the increase in the number of express kidnappings, triggered by the activities of specialized gangs that take advantage of the characteristics of the system itself to perpetrate scams.
Attentive to the marked increase in the number of cases, the Central Bank has announced a set of measures aimed at increasing user security.
Limiting the value of transactions in the period between 8pm to 6am; allowing users to hold transactions for 30 minutes during the day or 60 minutes during the night; enabling users to register in advance accounts authorized to exceed certain limits; requiring banks to maintain a national registry with suspicious accounts and requiring the sharing of information with the authorities, are examples of measures that promise to reduce the violence statistics.
While such measures are not implemented, the Judiciary, likewise, accompanies the growth of cases from victimized consumers who seek redress against banking institutions.
Still far from reaching a consensus on the responsibility for scams applied through this new form of payment, the decisions handed down are on collision course, at times holding financial institutions responsible, at others relegating the victims to the after-effects of the bank accounts embezzlement.
All this under the most varied legal theses, ranging from the risk of economic activity to unusual reflections, which often get lost in the discussion about where the crime was committed (whether inside or outside the institution), which sounds like a contradiction, since the new payment method is aimed precisely at transactions performed by mobile applications.
Author: Heitor de Lima Fávaro
