Mystery Shopper

May 27, 2019. The BCRA has released the results of the new survey using the “Mystery Shopper” method. This survey aims at analyzing the extent to which banks are offering the various financial services that the BCRA intends to foster.

This time, the research was conducted in thirteen institutions in Flores, Microcentro and Palermo neighborhoods.

In comparison with the previous January/February 2018 report, financial institutions improved their offering as to both Online Account Closures and E-Check Deposits services. In the case of the former, the service offered increased from 26% to 56%, while in the latter services offered grew from 38% to 51%. As regards Online Account Closures, none of the 13 surveyed institutions decreased their level of offering, and 8 of them even improved it.

On the other hand, only 4 institutions improved their level of offering of E-Check Deposits (Banco Ciudad, Banco Comafi, BBVA and ICBC).

As for Microcredit—a product surveyed for the first time—a low level of offering (21%) was observed, and no institution reported 100% of positive answers. Banco Provincia and Banco Nación were the only institutions that reported two positive answers (out of a total of three). Institutions can give loans to entrepreneurs undertaking non-formalized productive business, with a maximum amount of 50 minimum wages (ARS625,000). Given there is no branch in Microcentro that offers this product, people interested in starting this type of project are likely to seek advice in more distant branches. Microcredit is one of the products that has been surveyed for the first time, ranking in the twelfth place out of fifteen places.