Monthly Report on Retail Payments, July 2024

It is worth noting that the information corresponding to push instant transfers, payments by transfer through the same payment service provider that offers payment accounts (proveedor de servicios de pago que ofrece cuentas de pago, PSPCP), withdrawals, credit cards, debit cards, travel cards and prepaid cards is available as of June 2024.

Instant push transfers increased 93.3% y.o.y. in volume.

• In pesos:
• Administered by networks (off-us): there were 555.9 million instant push transfers for ARS46.3 trillion, climbing 93.3% y.o.y. in volume, and 39.7% y.o.y. in value. Fifty-eight percent of transfers were made from or to a virtual account through a single virtual code known as CVU.
• Intra PSPCP (on-us): there were 264.4 million transfers (107.7% y.o.y.) between accounts belonging to the same PSPCP for an amount of ARS3.4 trillion (56.6% y.o.y.).

• In foreign currency: there were 2.1 million transactions (291.6% y.o.y.) for an amount of USD2,515 million (88.2% y.o.y.), push transfers accounting for 97.1% of total transfers in foreign currency.

Instant pull transfers reached 2.3 million transactions.

• The 2.3 million transfers amounted to ARS158,6 billion, shrinking 1.3% in volume but rising 2.5% in value against June.

Payments by transfer (pagos con transferencia, PCTs): transactions with interoperable QR codes totaled 48 million.

• Interoperable: there were 52.4 million (63.4% y.o.y.) interoperable PCTs for ARS700.8 billion (-14.2% y.o.y.).
• QR code payments: 91.5% of interoperable PCTs were initiated through interoperable QR codes, accounting for 48 million payments (268.6% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS622.7 billion (201.7% y.o.y.). A rate of 66.4% of QR code payments were made from sight accounts, and the remaining 33.6% from payment accounts.
  Moreover, 46.3% of stores credited the funds collected to sight accounts, and 53.7% did so to payment accounts.
  Sixty-two interoperable e-wallets are currently registered with the BCRA.
• Token payments: 8.5% of interoperable PCTs were made through a token, accounting for 4.5 million payments (-6.2% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS78 billion (-20.3% y.o.y.).

• Intra PSPCP: they reached 406.2 million for an amount of ARS5 trillion, rising 105.5% y.o.y. in volume, and 56.4% y.o.y. in value.
• QR code payments: they accounted for 14.5%, reaching 58.8 million transactions (78.5% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS716.3 billion (52.6% y.o.y.).
• Payment button: they accounted for the remaining 85.5%, reaching 347.4 million transactions (110.9% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS4.3 trillion (57.1% y.o.y.).

Payment accounts and funds invested through PSPCPs:

In June, there were 14.5 million payment accounts with balances totaling ARS369.7 billion, whereas the balances of money market funds reached ARS2.5 trillion. Payment accounts and money market funds jointly accounted for 5.06% of total private sector deposits, which amounted to ARS57.1 trillion in that month. Currently, there are 160 PSPCPs registered.

Instant debits (DEBINs):

There were 38.7 million DEBINs (25% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS1.9 trillion (2.5% y.o.y.). In terms of volume, 0.5% of transactions were one-time DEBINs and 99.5%, recurring DEBINs.

Direct debits:

There were 12.5 million debits (6.6% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS996.9 billion (-22.3% y.o.y.), reaching a 56.9% effectiveness rate.

Checks: e-checks accounted for 74.5% of cleared amounts.

• A total of 5.4 million checks (in paper and electronic form) were cleared for ARS13 trillion. The share of e-checks in total cleared checks was 47.6% (2.6 million) in terms of volume and 74.5% (ARS9.7 trillion) in terms of value.
• Checks returned for insufficient funds: the rate of returned checks for insufficient funds over total cleared checks was 0.53% in terms of volume, and 1.07% in terms of value.

Cards: debit cards are more used than credit cards.

• Debit cards: there were 256.6 million debit card transactions for an amount of ARS4.5 trillion, exhibiting a change of 32.3% y.o.y. in volume, and of 8.9% y.o.y. in value.
• Credit cards: the number of credit card transactions reached 153.6 million for an amount of ARS5.6 trillion, changing 15.8% y.o.y. in volume, and -3.8% y.o.y. in value.
• Prepaid cards: there were 27.6 million payments for an amount of ARS355.5 billion, climbing 34.1% y.o.y. in volume and 3.8% y.o.y. in value.

Transportation prepaid cards:

There were 339.1 million trips (-13.5% y.o.y.) paid with SUBE cards for a total of ARS81.9 billion (46.5% y.o.y.).

Electronic credit invoices for MSMEs (factura de crédito electrónica MiPyME, FCEM):

In July, 87.9% of transactions were made in pesos. In other words, 101.4 thousand electronic invoices for an amount of ARS0.9 trillion were processed in the system for the open transfer of e-invoices (sistema de circulación abierta, SCA).

Withdrawals:

Ninety percent of withdrawals were made from ATMs.

• Withdrawals from ATMs: there were 96.6 million withdrawals from 17,058 ATMs for an amount of ARS2.7 trillion. The number of monthly withdrawals per ATM averaged 5,664, while withdrawals averaged ARS27.7 thousand in terms of value.
• Non-bank withdrawals through debit cards: there were 6.9 million transactions for an amount of ARS229,3 billion, withdrawals averaging ARS33.1 thousand in terms of value.

• Non-bank withdrawals from accounts belonging to the same PSPCP (closed loop): there were 3.5 million transactions for an amount of ARS125.9 billion, withdrawals averaging ARS36.4 thousand in terms of value.

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August 30, 2024