The Argentine Central Bank Issued New Regulations on Digital Payments

The Argentine Central Bank (the “BCRA”, after its Spanish acronym) issued Communiques “A” 6697 and 6698 incorporating important news regarding the virtual identification number ( “CVU”, after its Spanish acronym) (see Virtual Identification Number and New Developments Related to QR Payments) and the immediate debit payment service (the “DEBIN”, after its Spanish acronym) (see The Central Bank Implemented a New Online Immediate Debit Payment Service).

Regarding the CVU, the BCRA established that as of May 15, 2019, CVUs may be assigned to customers of payment service providers, whether human or legal persons, who do not qualify as users of financial services. Likewise, Communique "A" 6697 determines that as of June 30, 2019, financial institutions must provide their customers with a Mobile Banking channel to carry out transfers of funds involving at least one CVU.

In the same way, the BCRA ruled that transfers of funds involving CVU should be used to proceed under identical conditions to immediate transfers with uniform banking codes. As an example, the BCRA clarified that additional steps should not be required nor should the use of differentiated graphical interfaces.

Concerning DEBIN, the BCRA aims to simplify its operation to increase its adoption. Among other modifications, the BCRA modified the name of the “Pre-Authorized” DEBIN to “Recurrent” DEBIN, and it has incorporated changes to the applicable risk policies. Moreover, Communique “A” 6698 has provided that the receiving entity may not establish limits on the amounts in any of the modalities of DEBIN.