Changes in cards are viewed with skepticism by retail

São Paulo – Defended by retail, changes in credit cards and payments announced as part of the federal Government''s stimulus package are still considered insufficient to cause the main desired effect: the reduction of the interest to the final consumer. The retailers, the measure could make room for improving networks, reducing financial costs.
According to the presentation made on Thursday by the economic team, the Government intends to reduce the number of days that the credit card companies have to pay the shopkeeper. Currently, the dealer takes about 30 days to receive the money after buying the client. The information was that the change will come by provisional measure.
"Reduce the duration of the transfer to the retail will decrease the cost of money," analyzes Honorius Pinheiro, President of the National Confederation of Merchants Leaders (CNDL). With the smallest term, retailers would have the need to use the instrument of financial receivables, where shopkeepers pay rate to banks in Exchange for receiving the card values in advance.
On the other hand, some people believe that this reduction of expenditure could not benefit the consumer. "I doubt if this price reduction comes at the end, since banks can win in other ways, whether in interest, the loan relationships that make for retail," says André Feltrin, the company specialized FFC Financial Services.
"It is very difficult to assess what effect to the consumer, after all, not for the Government to interfere in interest rates," the Economic Adviser of the Fecomercio-SP, Wilhelm Dietze. "The shopkeeper, in a crisis scenario, for more you can reduce your expenses, you may want to increase his margin", concludes. The reduction of the period was an old retail demand, which had been brought to the Government by a group of industry associations, the National Union of organizations of trade and services (Unecs).
Default
The desire of retailers is that the deadline fell for something closer to the standard of other countries of the world: between 2 and 3 days. The assessment of experts, however, is that the effectiveness of the change still depends on a rearrangement in the trade relations between retailers and banks, which takes time.
The need to advance on receivables amounts for retail, financial expenses an expense that became representative on the results of the trade network on the level of interest rate in Brazil. Analysts believe that large companies could use their bargaining power and stable cash position to absorb this advantage of not having to anticipate the receivables. On the other hand, any taking of gain depends on the relationship with the banks and this improvement in spending be offset by increases in other fees.
The change considered most apt to here is the permission of differential pricing as the payment instrument. With this measure, the trade may charge different values for customers who pay with cash, check or credit card.
"It''s part of retail claims can give discounts when selling in sight and that today is forbidden," says Patel, CNDL. Although informally this practice already occurs, Dietze, Fecomercio-SP, assesses that the relaxation opens more space to reduce consumer prices.
The price drop, however, tends not to be so meaningful in an environment in which retailers suffer with high other costs besides the financial expense, as labor and energy, for example.