Chile's Comisión para el Mercado Financiero (CMF) closed a public consultation on 9 September 2026 on a rule that expands the complementary activities payment card operators may perform. The consultation opened on 12 August 2026 and ran for four weeks. The draft adds three activities to the permitted list: payment initiation services, the implementation of payment systems based on electronic funds transfers (TEF) for affiliated merchants, and payout services linked to transactions the operator has already processed.
An acquirer offering the TEF service could accept transfers in person through payment terminals or remotely through payment buttons or equivalent mechanisms. The rule permits the service only where the operator does not retain the transferred funds and holds a contract with the issuer of the funds account. The CMF said the final objective is to favour the development of new services, competition and innovation in the financial market. The regulator added that it periodically reviews the activities of supervised entities to determine whether new functions can be incorporated as complementary activities.
Juan Andrés Bravo of 10Pay told Chócale that acquirers have operated under the rules of the card world since the late 1980s and would now enter the different business of electronic transfers. The Banco Central de Chile's August 2026 Informe de Sistemas de Pago reported that electronic funds transfers (TEF) grew 15%. The same report found that only 10% of those interbank transfers were payments to merchants. In the twelve months to March 2026, Chileans made more than 7.7 billion digital payments, an average of 435 a year per person over 15, according to the report.
The central bank said it will put out for consultation regulatory changes intended to strengthen the instant payments system. The CMF said the details of its proposal remain available in the Normativa en Consulta section of its website.