Bimonnetarismo in progress: Fintechs reinforce their infrastructure to capture more dollars in dollars

The new stage Post-Cepo not only modified the rules of the game for the Alycs, but also pushed the Fintechs to redouble their commitment to strengthen the infrastructure in dollars, the expansion of digital money and credit growth. Referents of the sector agreed that the exchange opening forced redesign products and to develop an infrastructure capable of “creating rails for dollar use cases”, anticipating a new competitive scenario.

Although for now only three fintechs are offering products that remunerate in dollars, ecosystem leaders say they continue to work to Adapt technology to higher volumes. They also recognize that the leaving of the stock “generates more competition” and accelerates innovation processes. This analysis took place in the Fintech Meetupps made in Buenos Aires, organized by the Fintech Argentine Chamber. The goal remains: continue to gain cash and generate an adequate exceeding offer to the client’s measure.

According to the last Global Payments Report prepared by WorldPay, Argentina leads the use of digital wallets at physical points of sale in the region: 25% of consumers already pay with this methodexceeding even the use of cash, which fell to 25% (two points less than in the previous edition of the report). Without wallets, the use of tickets would be even greater, given the high informality of the economy.

Regional comparison, Our country presents a lower use of cash than other countries such as Mexico (35%), Colombia (33%) and Peru (31%), although even above Chile (18%) and Brazil (17%), more aligned with the global trend of 15%. In addition, Argentina heads the use of digital wallets in online commerce: 58% of consumers choose this option, with Payment Market as the main actor.

Returning to the restrictions of the dollar, the companies They had already riding a dollarized infrastructure before the length of the stocks, But with this incentive, the Fintech further promoted the tools already in force to increase the uses for digital dollars: remuneration, charges, payments and investment without having CVU in dollars or traditional exchange platforms. Taking into account this context, during the Fintech Meetupps the analysts of the sector stressed that, although today the wallets can operate in dollars without the need for a specific CVU, a scenario of consolidated bimonetarism would accelerate the adoption of CVU in dollarsfurther facilitating the integration of this currency into the digital ecosystem.

It is worth remembering that, a CVU in dollars It is one Uniform virtual key (CVU) associated with an account in dollars within the Argentine payment system. As well as a traditional CVU allows to identify an account in pesos in a virtual or Fintech wallet (such as Mercado Pago, Ulá, etc.), the CVU in dollars Identify an account in foreign currency managed by a payment service provider (PSP) or Fintech that operates with that functionality.

Transportation: the jump from QR to NFC

One of the Great growth engines was the landing of digital means of payment In public transport, especially in the Buenos Aires subway, where 150,000 transactions per day are already carried out. The use of the QR in combination with contactless technology advances, although a full interoperability logic that allows all wallets to participate without restrictions is still missing. So far this year, the transport payment system already accumulates 16 million operations for a total of 14,000 million pesos.

The challenge forward is to federalize access: extend these advances to all transport modes and all regions of the country. They emphasize that, opening to the importation of cell phones with NFC technology for cell phones can be a key catalyst in that process, in reference to the last measure of the government that seeks to reduce zero tariffs for technology import.

What’s coming: “Open Finance”, tip and digital dollar

Fintechs project A second semester with axis on three main fronts: interoperability, bimonetarism and enhance digital tips. This last use, still incipient, already accumulates 100,000 monthly transactions, although it faces the cultural barrier that many businesses do not adopt it for fear of costs or taxes.

The immediate future looks towards the Drue card in dollars (today used mainly in tourism, with 2 million dollars of monthly consumption), the deployment of solutions such as “Clean to pay “ for e-commerce and the consolidation of “Open Finance” and “Open Banking” as the next great milestones of integration.

An obstacle that persists: the Debit and Credit Tax

Despite the regulatory progress that the crypto industry achieved in 2024 – with the creation of a regulatory framework for virtual asset service providers (PSAV) -, from the Fintech Argentine Chamber, they warn that the Tax to Debit and Credits remains a structural work. The statement released on May 13 warns that Decree 796/2021 unjustifiably excluded the PSAV from the tax exemption regime that benefits banks and other regulated entities.

In addition, their concern in the intention of applying the tribute retroactively again, which generates uncertainty and “discourages investments” in a sector that already mobilizes more than US $ 91,000 million in annual transactions. “This kills the ecosystem,” summarized a reference of the sector in the meeting.