WhatsApp is rolling out a merchant payment system in Brazil

The Central Bank of Brazil has approved the launch of Meta Platforms' payments system for small and medium-sized businesses in Brazil via its messaging application WhatsApp, building on the app's existing local peer-to-peer payment system, per a Reuters report.

The integrated payments system will enable people to pay for small businesses directly on WhatsApp according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in an Instagram post. Although WhatsApp users in the region have been able to make payments between users through the application since 2021, the new development clears the way for merchants to receive payments.

The approval comes as Meta seeks to use the Brazilian market as a key test space for business messaging, an area that has assumed greater urgency as Meta's core advertising business has stalled.

WhatsApp is also looking to integrate a feature that "will allow users to pay for products and services directly through conversations with Mastercard and Visa debit cards," according to Guilherme Horn, Head of WhatsApp Latin America in a post on LinkedIn.

WhatsApp's integrated payment feature is already available for users in countries, including India, Brazil, and Mexico and selected users in the US.