How do people in Paraguay pay online?
Instant transfers took off in three years. The Banco Central del Paraguay (BCP) runs the Sistema de Pagos Instantáneos (SPI) inside its national payment system, SIPAP. It went from 6,808 operations in May 2022 to 27.2 million in May 2025, adding about 150,000 users a month, La Nación reported. In October 2025 it handled about 39.6 million transfers worth G. 13.7 trillion, about USD 1.9 billion, twice as many as a year earlier. From January to October 2025 it handled 283 million operations, 2.2 times the same period of 2024, according to an analysis of BCP data by the consultancy Mentu. Transfers to an alias reached 58.1 million in that period, eight times more than a year earlier.
The rules keep widening. Since 14 March 2026 banks and other financial entities can send instant transfers of up to G. 10 million per operation, 24 hours a day, up from G. 5 million. The BCP has also added a central module that makes QR codes interoperable across banks, finance companies and electronic wallets, and allows NFC to start electronic payments.
Cards and QR run through networks such as Bancard. Bancard says it serves more than 100,000 merchants, processes more than 4.5 million cards and more than 100 million transactions a month, and accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Diners Club, Discover, UnionPay, JCB and Elo along with local brands such as Cabal, Panal and Credicard and local wallets such as Zimple, Dimo and Vaquita. For online stores it offers vPOS for websites and apps. Bancard data cited by La Nación show more than 180 million QR transactions in 2025, close to 20 million of them in December.
What rules shape online payments in Paraguay?
IVA is 10%, with a special 5% rate on items such as listed basic foods, medicines and real estate, according to PwC.
Foreign digital services pay IVA at the point of payment. Under Law 6380 of 2019, Decree 3107 of 2020 and General Resolution 76 of 2020, banks, financial entities, exchange houses, cooperatives, payment processors and similar intermediaries that handle payments abroad act as IVA withholding agents when a cardholder pays for a listed foreign digital service by credit card, debit card or transfer, DPL News reported. Article 12 of the resolution lists the services covered, and cardholders charged IVA on an unlisted service can claim it back through their bank.
E-commerce has its own law. Law 4868 of 2013 and its Decree 1165 of 2014 require online sellers to show, in a permanent and free way, who they are, their privacy and security level, a copy of the contract, delivery terms, warranty, the procedure for returns, exchanges and refunds with its deadlines, and the price, currency, payment methods, final value and freight. Shoppers must be able to correct errors and must confirm the purchase expressly. Consumers have a right of withdrawal, with exceptions for goods made to their specifications, goods that spoil quickly and opened audio, video or software. Article 17 requires every seller to offer a refund mechanism when the product does not arrive as promised in time, quantity or quality, claimed within five business days of receipt. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce enforces the law, and fines run from 200 to 1,000 daily minimum wages.
Data protection is changing. Paraguay’s current core law, Law 6534 of 2020, covers credit data. Congress approved Law 7593 on personal data protection in November 2025, set to take effect 24 months after approval, and the e-commerce rules already require express consent to collect personal information, according to DLA Piper.
How would Omno route payments in Paraguay?
A merchant would connect once and set routing rules per method, currency and customer group. In Paraguay:
- Card pay-ins would be routed by BIN, so local brands such as Cabal and Panal go only to providers that accept them, with cascading to the next provider in the rule if one is unavailable or rejects the request.
- QR payments and instant transfers would be offered in the hosted checkout through a provider that supports them, with the order pending until the provider confirms the payment.
- Amount rules could keep instant transfers for baskets under the G. 10 million per-operation limit and send larger amounts to cards.
Webhooks would report the final status of every payment, and the routing-decision log would show which provider handled each payment and why.
What should merchants plan for?
Plan for QR and instant transfers next to cards. Hundreds of millions of everyday payments now move this way, and shoppers expect to scan or send to an alias.
Plan for the e-commerce law’s checkout duties. Show your identity, prices, currency, final value, freight and returns policy, let shoppers correct errors, and ask them to confirm the order.
Plan for IVA on digital services. If you sell listed digital services to Paraguayan consumers from abroad, expect banks and processors to add 10% IVA to card payments.
Plan for the new data law. Law 7593 takes effect about two years after its November 2025 approval, so build consent records and data access rights into your systems now.