Originating Fully-Performed Card Receivables in Brazil

Real World Assets Pool Onboarding Proposals (POP)
1

Hello everyone,

My name is Daniel, and I am the founder behind Alinha, a new credit-receivables platform being launched in Brazil. I would like to present our operating model and understand whether this category of real-world assets could be suitable for a future pool on Centrifuge.

Market Context in Brazil

Brazil has one of the largest card-payment systems globally, with “buy now, pay later” embedded into standard credit-card transactions. Merchants typically receive their card receivables in 30–90 days, and most rely on receivables advances to manage cash flow.

Despite strong infrastructure, these advances are expensive. Merchants normally pay 2% or more per month, even though:

  • The receivables are fully performed

  • Every transaction is registered in centralized receivables registries (Nuclea, supervised by the Central Bank of Brazil)

  • The receivables are part of the Visa/Mastercard domestic settlement rails

  • Chargeback rates in physical retail are below 1%

This creates an opportunity to deliver more efficient capital while maintaining very low credit risk.

How Alinha Operates

Alinha originates card-receivable credit advances directly through our platform. We are preparing to onboard a network of around 6,000 merchants, each processing approximately USD 10,000 per month in eligible receivables.

Key characteristics of the asset:

  • Short duration and predictable cash flow

  • 100% secured by already-performed receivables

  • Registered and pledged through the Brazilian central receivables registry (Nuclea)

  • Embedded in the Visa/Mastercard settlement infrastructure, which standardizes payment flows

  • Very low chargeback incidence for in-person retail

Capital Structure and FX Considerations

Our goal is to access USD-denominated capital to reduce the cost of funding for Brazilian merchants.

If we source capital in USD and we cover the full cost of FX hedging (via instruments on B3 or CME), the resulting economics allow us to:

  • Offer merchants materially better rates than their current 2%+ monthly costs

  • Deliver investors a net annually yield in the range of 8–9% (hedged), depending on hedge structure and tenor

  • Maintain the underlying BRL credit risk extremely low, due to the combination of:

    • performed receivables

    • centralized registry protections

    • payment-network settlement guarantees

    • high granularity and diversification

Why I Am Sharing This Here

We are interested in understanding whether this type of receivables origination could fit within Centrifuge’s framework for real-world asset pools.

Specifically, we would like to learn:

  1. Whether a pool backed by Brazilian card-receivable advances would be considered appropriate for the ecosystem

  2. What structural, legal, or data requirements we should prepare as we scale

  3. How best to align our origination, risk, and reporting processes with Centrifuge standards

  4. What steps are recommended for originators planning to submit a formal pool proposal in the future

We are still early in deployment, but we aim to follow best practices from the beginning. Any guidance or feedback from the community, governance participants, asset managers, or anyone familiar with similar credit verticals would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time,
Daniel