Report on Retail Payments, October 2024

Monthly Report on Retail Payments, October 2024

The report analyzes information as of October 2024, except for that involving withdrawals, credit cards, debit cards and transportation cards, and prepaid cards, which are updated as of September 2024.

Instant push transfers increased 65.4% y.o.y. in volume.

  • In pesos:there were 591 million instant push transfers for an amount of ARS52.4 trillion, climbing 65.4% y.o.y. in volume, and 22.5% y.o.y. in value. Sixty-eight point eight percent of transfers were made from or to a virtual account through a single virtual code known as CVU.
  • In foreign currency: there were 2.3 million transactions (149.6% y.o.y.) for an amount of USD4.082 billion (166.7% y.o.y.).

Instant pull transfers reached 40.9 million transactions.

  • There were 40.9 million transfers for an amount of ARS2.2 trillion, rising 6.7% in volume and 10.2% in value against September.

Payments by transfer (pagos con transferencia, PCTs): transactions with interoperable QR codes totaled 52.3 million.

  • Interoperable: there were 56.4 million (62.4% y.o.y.) interoperable PCTs for ARS791.3 billion (-3.9% y.o.y.).
    • QR code payments: 92.6% of interoperable PCTs were initiated through interoperable QR codes, accounting for 52.3 million payments (144.2% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS715.1 billion (103.5% y.o.y.). Payments from sight accounts represented 69.2%, and payments from payment accounts, 30.8%. Moreover, 49.8% of stores credited the funds in sight accounts, and 50.2%, in payment accounts.
      Sixty-five interoperable e-wallets are currently registered with the BCRA.
    • Token payments: 7.4% of interoperable PCTs were made through a token, accounting for 4.2 million payments (-29.3% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS76.3 billion (-41.3% y.o.y.).

Payment accounts and funds invested through PSPCPs:

In September, out of 51.5 million accounts, there were 14.5 million payment accounts with balances totaling ARS405.5 billion, whereas money market funds reached ARS3.1 trillion. Payment accounts and money market funds jointly accounted for 5.35% of total private sector deposits, which amounted to ARS65.1 trillion in that month. Currently, there are 168 payment service providers that offer payment accounts (proveedores de servicios de pago que ofrecen cuentas de pago, PSPCPs) registered.

Direct debits:

There were 12.5 million debits (8.5% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS1.3 trillion (3.1% y.o.y.), reaching a 54.6% success rate.

Checks: e-checks accounted for 76.3% of cleared amounts.

  • A total of 5.5 million checks (in paper and electronic form) were cleared for ARS15 trillion. The share of e-checks in total cleared checks was 50.8% (2.8 million) in terms of volume and 76.3% (ARS11.5 trillion) in terms of value.
  • Checks returned for insufficient funds: the rate of returned checks for insufficient funds over total cleared checks was 0.65% in terms of volume, and 0.5% in terms of value.

Cards: debit cards are more used than credit cards.

  • Debit cards:there were 234.5 million debit card transactions for an amount of ARS4.6 trillion, exhibiting a change of 6.7% y.o.y. in volume, and of -4.2% y.o.y. in value.
  • Credit cards: the number of credit card transactions reached 162.3 million for an amount of ARS6.7 trillion, changing 20.9% y.o.y. in volume, and 6.4% y.o.y. in value.
  • Prepaid cards: there were 42.3 million payments for an amount of ARS616.6 billion, climbing 97.3% y.o.y. in volume and 65.9% y.o.y. in value.

Transportation prepaid cards:

There were 394.6 million trips (-5.5% y.o.y.) paid with SUBE cards for a total of ARS123.4 billion (118.2% y.o.y.).

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

In October, 88.8% of transactions were made in pesos. In other words, 116.7 thousand electronic invoices for an amount of ARS1.1 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 83.3 million withdrawals from 17,056 ATMs for an amount of ARS2.8 trillion. On average, there were 4,883 monthly withdrawals per ATM, each of which amounted to ARS33.3 thousand.
  • Non-bank withdrawals through debit cards: there were 5.6 million transactions for an amount of ARS223.5 billion, withdrawals averaging ARS40 thousand.

  • Non-bank withdrawals from payment accounts belonging to the same PSPCP (closed loop): there were 3.3 million transactions for an amount of ARS131.8 billion, withdrawals amounting to ARS40.6 thousand on average.

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November 29, 2024

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