The Central Bank of Cuba announced on Wednesday the immediate entry into force of a strict control on cash, as part of a set of measures known in financial jargon as “corralito”.
The new measures seek that the collection and payment transactions between all the actors of the Cuban economy are carried out electronically through the banks, given the scarcity of physical money.
In a statement, the BCC indicated that it is creating the conditions and capacities for this process, which it called “banking”, through which the use of cash will be reduced to the maximum.
“The banking of collection and payment transactions between all the actors of the economy and with the population, will be done by facilitating the use of existing electronic payment methods, devices and gateways, in addition to promoting the use of credit cards. credits and other means of payment in force, reducing cash,” says the text, published one day after the Council of Ministers approved the measure.
“Only natural persons who dispense their pensions, salaries and other personal assets, as well as resources from savings accounts, will be able to use the ATM network to extract cash,” the document adds.
Likewise, it provides that “transactions carried out between all economic actors will be executed through credit titles and other means of payment in force, except cash.”
For this, “priority will be given to the use of electronic means and channels, where possible, crediting only said assets in their current or fiscal accounts.”
Finally, the BCC indicates that it will continue “gradually the actions for the creation of conditions in all businesses and in service provider entities, which allow collection with electronic means of payment and the use of existing payment gateways ( Transfermóvil, ENZONA, QR code, in addition to the Point of Sale Terminals, known as POS)” and that will give discounts to the population when they make their payments with these means.
