Brazil: Merchant Acquiring & Risk

A structural feature shapes the competitive dynamics: sub-acquirers are not card-network members and process at low cost across brands, positioning them as a disruption vector against bank-controlled acquirers. On the Pix side, MED debits the recipient merchant's settlement and offers no merchant evidence-submission process, a materially different risk profile from card chargebacks. Together these mechanics define the acquirer and sub-acquirer settlement, chargeback and MDR economics that govern merchant-acquiring P&L in Brazil.

The framework spans both bank-controlled acquirers and non-bank sub-acquirers, with the sub-acquirer model the principal non-bank entry route into merchant acquiring.

Outlook

The trajectory is established. Settlement harmonisation and the sub-acquirer competitive model are settled features. The principal forward tension is the prepaid-interchange classification question, tracked under W7, which bears directly on acquiring economics.