Monthly Report on Retail Payments, April 2023

- Instant push transfers

• Administered by networks: there were 223.3 million instant push transfers for ARS6,1 trillion, climbing 112.9% y.o.y., and 24.5% y.o.y., in terms of number and amount, respectively. Sixty point three percent of transfers (134.6 million) involved the use of a single virtual code known as CVU—identifying a payer and/or a payee account.
• Intra-PSPCP: instant transfers between accounts belonging to the same payment service provider that offers payment accounts (proveedor de servicios de pago que ofrece cuentas de pago, PSPCP) reached ARS408.6 billion (88.3 % y.o.y.), involving 104.3 million transactions (154.4% y.o.y.).

- Payments by transfer (pagos con transferencia, PCTs): transactions with interoperable QR codes exceeded 9.4 million.
There were 198.8 million PTCs for a total of ARS787.1 billion; interoperable payments accounted for 15.7% and 22% in terms of amount and number, respectively; and intra-PSPCP payments, for 84.3% and 78% in terms of amount and number, respectively.

• Interoperable PCTs: there were 30.3 million (47.4% y.o.y.) interoperable PCTs for a total of ARS171.9 billion (-8.2% y.o.y.).
• QR code payments: 31.1% of interoperable PTCs were made through interoperable QR codes, soaring above 9.4 million payments (309.6% y.o.y.) for ARS31.9 billion (255.2% y.o.y.). Payments from sight accounts represented 81.2%, and payments from payment accounts, 18.8%. Moreover, 62.5% of stores credited the funds in sight accounts, and 37.5%, in payment accounts.
• POS card payments: 40.2% of interoperable PCTs were made through debit cards at point-of-sale (POS) terminals, reaching 12.2 million transactions (17.5% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS94 billion (-11.3 % y.o.y.).
• Token payments: 12.7% of interoperable PCTs requiring a token accounted for 3.9 million payments (19.8% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS17.4 billion (0.5% y.o.y.).
• Payment buttons: 15.9% of interoperable PCTs were online, accounting for 4.8 million payments (3.8% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS28.5 billion (-47.7% y.o.y.).

• Intra-PSPCP PCTs: payments reached 167.5 million for an amount of ARS614.3 billion.
• QR code payments: they accounted for 17.9%, reaching 29.9 million transactions (129.6% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS93.9 billion (87.6% y.o.y.).
• Online payments: they accounted for the remaining 82.1%, reaching 137.5 million transactions (203.2% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS520.4 billion (143.2% y.o.y.).

- Payment accounts and funds invested through PSPCPs: they reached 15.3 million payment accounts with balances totaling ARS101.9 billion in March, whereas the amounts invested in mutual funds reached ARS200.8 billion. Payment accounts and mutual funds jointly accounted for 1.62% of total private sector deposits, which amounted to ARS18.7 trillion in March.

- Instant debit (DEBIN): DEBINs increased 4% against March, exhibiting a growth rate of 81.8% y.o.y., and reaching 24.5 million transactions for an amount of ARS311.4 billion. In terms of the number of transactions, 0.4% were one-time DEBINs and 99.6%, recurring DEBINs.

- Direct debit: there were 11 million debits (3.6% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS257.3 billion (-7.5% y.o.y.), reaching a 53.1% success rate.

- Checks: electronic checks (ECHEQs) accounted for 63% of cleared amounts. · A total of 4.4 million checks (in paper and electronic form) were cleared for ARS2.6 trillion. The share of ECHEQs in total cleared checks was 36.6% (1.6 million) and 62.9% (ARS1.7 trillion) in terms of number and amount, respectively. · Checks returned for insufficient funds: the ratio of returned checks for insufficient funds over total cleared checks slightly dropped to 0.87% and 0.60% in terms of number and amount, respectively.

- Cards: debit card use remained above credit card use. · Debit cards: there were 193 million debit card transactions for an amount of ARS895.7 billion, exhibiting a change of 16.9% y.o.y., and 2% y.o.y. in terms of number and amount, respectively. · Credit cards: the number of credit card transactions reached 115.7 million for an amount of ARS1,097.6 billion, changing 8.4% y.o.y. and -0.7% y.o.y. in terms of number and amount, respectively.

- Transportation prepaid cards: there were 399.9 million trips (6.3% y.o.y.) paid with SUBE cards for a total of ARS12.8 billion (3.2% y.o.y.).

- Electronic credit invoices for MSMEs (factura de crédito electrónica MiPyME, FCEM): in March, 89.4% of transactions involved 138.7 thousand electronic invoices in pesos for an amount of ARS270.4 trillion under the system for the open transfer of e-invoices (sistema de circulación abierta, SCA).

- Withdrawals from ATMs: there were 94.1 million withdrawals from 17,426 ATMs for an amount of ARS1,171.9 billion. The average number of monthly withdrawals per ATM was 5,394 with a monthly average amount of ARS12.5 thousand.

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May 31, 2023