Card Payments in Argentina: Central Bank Said to Plan Lower Costs for Shops
Argentina's central bank is preparing a market where lenders bid for shops' card receipts, a daily reports. Bankers say early cash costs about 50% a year. The post Card Payments in Argentina: Central Bank Said to Plan Lower Costs for Shops appeared first on The Rio Times .
Argentina's central bank is considering a plan to lower costs for shops accepting card payments, according to El Cronista, a Buenos Aires business daily. The bank has invited firms to run a market for card receipts, with the intention of turning them into tradable assets. Shops currently wait between 8 and 18 days to receive payments from card transactions, and this plan aims to provide them with early access to cash by allowing them to sell their card receipts to banks and other lenders.
The central bank, led by Santiago Bausili, would own the infrastructure and act as its regulator, while companies chosen by the bank would operate the platform. The current three processors dominating this business are Fiserv, Payway, and Mercado Pago. This move could significantly reduce the cost of cash for small shops, as their current cost of around 50% per year could halve if more lenders compete for the business.
The central bank is working with Argentina's securities regulator, CNV, on this plan, which is part of a wider capital-markets reform that Congress must still approve.
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