The BCRA Created a Registry for Peer-to-Peer Lending Service Providers

The Board of the BCRA has established that all providers of peer-to-peer lending services through digital platforms will have to register with the Superintendence of Financial and Foreign Exchange Institutions (SEFyC) within 30 days after the registry is operational. Registration does not imply being granted a license to carry out financial intermediation, to take funds from the public, to advertise or to use names reserved to institutions authorized to do so.

Peer-to-peer lending service providers are companies that offer the service of connecting one or more lenders to borrowers in order to carry out loan transactions in pesos. These legal persons shall not be borrowers or lenders on the platforms they manage.

For registration, peer-to-peer lending service providers have to enter the website of the Federal Administration of Public Revenue (Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos, AFIP), using the taxpayer password of the legal person that is registering, to obtain a user name and a password, and then complete the process in the application created by the BCRA, attaching the following documents and including this information:

-Copy of the partnership agreement or bylaws, as amended

-Name of legal person

-Name of trademark

-Taxpayer identification number (CUIT)

-Legal domicile

-Special domicile

-Legal representative/attorney-in-fact

-Person responsible for data security

-Person responsible for the reporting system

-Identification of shareholders and directors

At the end of the enrollment process, they will receive a certificate indicating that the registration process has begun.

In addition, these providers:

-May not take credit risk for transactions between investors and borrowers, and may not guarantee any of the obligations incurred by the parties through the platform.

-May not undertake to repay investors or acquire or purchase loans granted through the platform.

-Will have to carry out the movement of funds with their clients through sight accounts in pesos at financial institutions or in payment accounts offered by payment service providers in Argentina.

-Will have to give investors, at all times, the option to assign the loan to another investor through the platform and/or withdraw the supporting documentation for its management outside the platform by the investor.

-Must have a procedures manual that clearly explains the process and methodology for offering loans to investors, taking into account the current controls.

-Must clearly state—in any advertising and documentation—that they just offer to connect borrowers and lenders in general, and that they are not licensed to operate as financial institutions. Moreover, they must state that they do not take on any responsibility or risk for any transactions between borrowers and lenders, and that they do not guarantee the collection of loans.

-Will have to submit copies of their accounting and financial statements, and any information required by the reporting system to be established. They must also allow the SEFyC's officials to carry out regular audits.

-Will also have to provide information on the loans they manage, which will be published in the Debtors' Database of the Financial System of the BCRA.

November 25, 2021.