When Brazil’s Central Bank liquidated Entrepay and other companies in its group at the end of March, it marked the first time in the country’s history that a card acquirer had been subject to intervention. Now, a court decision allowing a company to effectively bypass card networks—key operators of payment arrangements—has added further uncertainty to the sector.
On March 31, a judge from São Paulo’s 32nd Civil Court granted a request from a hotel chain that claimed to have R$49 million in receivables from Entrepay, which had been liquidated days earlier. Citing risk of harm—“as there is a clear possibility that the amounts processed through Entrepay’s payment system may not be transferred to the claimant”—the…