On June 3, the Central Bank of Argentina issued Communiqué “A” 5982 that provides the basic regulatory framework to allow financial institutions to offer immediate fund transfers through a new channel called “Mobile Payment Platform”.
Communiqué “A” 5982 gives financial institutions the possibility of offering their clients with call accounts the service of immediate fund transfers and payments to third parties’ accounts (hereinafter, “Transfers”) operating through the “Mobile Payment Platform” (hereinafter, the “Platform).
These Transfers shall be individualized according to their type within the Platform, and may be performed for an aggregate amount not exceeding the equivalent of a minimum wage, as determined by the competent authorities for the previous month (pursuant to Resolution 2/2016 of the National Employment Council, the current value of a minimum wage is AR$ 6.810, approximately USD 445 at the current exchange rate). Nevertheless, this regulation specifies that such limit may be exceeded provided that complementary security measures were implemented.
The Central Bank determined that clients must be able to access the Platform using their debit cards or any other means, provided that (i) they guarantee the authenticity of the transactions and (ii) clients are furnished with a certificate —either in physical or digital support— of the transaction. As opposed to several other regulations, this section of the aforementioned Communiqué contains neutral language that does not limit its applicability to any certain type of technology, e.g., cards.
Additionally, financial institutions must provide their customers —before August 1, 2016— with a card to access their call accounts allowing them to perform immediate fund transfers, among other services.
The Central Bank also determined that financial institutions offering the home banking service shall:
i) provide their customers with a mobile application to canalize the Transfers, free of charge;
ii) offer their customers the possibility to perform immediate fund transfers using security devices to validate the transactions, including generic devices —which may also be provided by third parties— allowing for validation of transactions through access cards linked to their call accounts;
iii) offer their fund recipient customers and payment service providers an application similar to a “payment button” allowing buyers to perform transactions in virtual points of sales through immediate fund transfers from their call accounts.
It should be noted that the validation of the transactions carried out with the devices described in point ii) above shall be free of charge for the customers, and the availability of the “payment button” mentioned in point iii) shall also be free of charge for customers performing such payments.
Moreover, financial institutions offering the home banking service shall be interconnected with other local providers offering fund transfer and payment services.
The regulations on the technical security measures to be incorporated for these new technological tools and services are still pending.
The Central Bank has also determined that the receipt of funds carried out through the Platform as payments for goods and services shall be free of charge up to a monthly amount equivalent to the twelfth part of the maximum annual sales of a micro-enterprise of the “services” sector. Pursuant to Communiqué “A” 5989, such limit is applicable to any type of recipient of such payment funds, notwithstanding their size, category or activity.
These new regulations represent a clear step from the Central Bank towards the integration of the financial system with technological innovations, aiming to foster access to banking services within the Argentine population as well as to facilitate access and usage of available digital tools.
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