Friday May 5, 2023 | 8:45 a.m.
The electronic wallets that offer payment accounts will not be able to “carry out or facilitate operations with digital assets, including crypto assets,” according to the Central Bank’s ruling today. The decision prevents fintechs that are payment service providers “from carrying out these types of operations themselves or offering to initiate them from their applications or web platforms. Offering or facilitating is understood to mean the availability of automated purchase buttons for the user. Interested persons must carry out the operation on their own,” the BCRA said in a statement.
A year ago, the BCRA had ordered a ban on trading cryptocurrencies for banks, a few days after a leading entity, Galicia, had begun to offer it to its customers. “This standard equates the rules that the PSPCP and financial entities must comply with,” said the BCRA.
The measure surprised the fintech ecosystem, largely turned to cryptocurrencies. Several companies in the sector were unaware of the arrival of this restriction, according to inquiries made by Infobae after learning of the BCRA statement. In turn, they agreed that they did not have details on the scope of the decision.
Despite the fact that there are many doubts in this regard, different sources explained that the BCRA ban is focused on preventing massive wallets that offer different financial services, such as payments and investments, from operating with crypto assets. The Central wants these companies to not be able to sell Bitcoin, in the same way that banks cannot. The norm will affect those who already do so in Argentina and will discourage those who sell cryptos in other countries. The latter is the case of Mercado Pago, which already offers cryptocurrencies in Brazil, Mexico and Chile.
At the same time, in the market they interpreted that it will not have major effects on those wallets with a more specific profile towards the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies that combine this operation with the possibility of making payments with cards or QR, (Belo, Lemon, Bitso and others). , which will continue to work as before.
“The measure would not be affecting our operations. We understand that you would be pointing out that providers such as banks, and wallets such as Uala and Mercado Pago do not offer this type of service. We will continue to operate without interruptions”, they told Infobae in one of the main crypto wallets in the market.
The brief regulation launched by the BCRA, A7759, does not make any reference to “automated purchase buttons” but refers to all types of operations with cryptocurrencies carried out by “Payment Service Providers that offer Payment Accounts (PSPCP)” , technical name given to electronic wallets. The provision established: “Provide that the PSPCP may not carry out or facilitate to their clients the carrying out of operations with digital assets -including crypto assets and those whose yields are determined based on the variations that they register- that are not authorized by a competent national regulatory authority or by the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic.”
This last aspect, in which the Argentine jurisdiction is specified, is key. In many wallets that operate in the Argentine market, a company provides payment services such as a virtual account (CVU) and a Visa or Mastercard that is a PSPCP and is regulated by the BCRA, coexist with another firm that sells crypto assets. and that it does not have that regulation.
Notwithstanding this, there was considerable confusion among fintechs about how the measure will be implemented and which companies will have to change some aspect of their activity.
In the grounds cited in the BCRA statement, the monetary entity indicated that the measure “seeks to mitigate the risks that operations with these assets could generate for users of financial services and the national payment system.”
“In May 2021, the Central Bank and the National Securities Commission (CNV) published an alert in order to provide information on possible implications and risks that cryptoactives may entail, as well as recommend a prudent attitude in order to mitigate a possible source of vulnerability for users and investors”, concluded the Central.
