Monthly Report on Retail Payments - December 2023

The month under analysis is December 2023. Information about push instant transfers, payments by transfer belonging to 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 and transportation cards is as of November 2023; and data available about prepaid cards is as of September 2023.

Instant push transfers increased 117.8% y.o.y., posting the highest level so far this year.

• Administered by networks: there were 422 million instant push transfers for an amount of ARS19.4 trillion, climbing 117.8% y.o.y. in volume, and 24.1% y.o.y. in value. Sixty-seven point two percent of transfers (283.6 million) involved the use of a single virtual code known as CVU—identifying a payer and/or a payee account.
• Intra-PSPCP: transfers between accounts belonging to the same PSPCP reached ARS1.3 trillion (86.9% y.o.y.), involving 185.7 million transactions (120.8% y.o.y.).

Instant pull transfers reached 2.3 million transactions.

• There were 2.3 million transfers for an amount of ARS84.2 billion, rising 39.1% in volume and 42.9% in value against November.

Payments by transfer (pagos con transferencia, PCTs): transactions with interoperable QR codes totaled 28.8 million.

• Interoperable: there were 42.4 million (37.1% y.o.y.) interoperable PCTs for a total of ARS429.8 billion (-20.6 % y.o.y.).
• QR code payments: 67.9% of interoperable PCTs were initiated through interoperable QR codes, accounting for almost 28.8 million payments (283.9% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS225.6 billion (220.5% y.o.y.). Payments from sight accounts represented 81.4%, and payments from payment accounts, 18.6%. Moreover, 60.9% of stores credited the funds in sight accounts, and 39.1%, in payment accounts.
• POS card payments: 13.6% of interoperable PCTs were made through debit cards at point-of-sale (POS) terminals, reaching 5.8 million transactions (-58.6% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS124.4 billion (-55.3% y.o.y.).
• Token payments: 15.2% of interoperable PCTs were made through a token, accounting for 6.4 million payments (74.5% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS69.4 billion (55% y.o.y.).
• Payment button: 3.3% of interoperable PCTs were made by clicking a payment button, accounting for 1.4 million payments (-76% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS10.3 billion (-93 % y.o.y.).

• Intra PSPCP: they reached 293.56 million for an amount of ARS1.9 trillion, rising 119.4% y.o.y. in volume, and 92.9% y.o.y. in value. alcanzaron los 293,56 millones de pagos por $ 1,9 billones, con crecimientos interanuales del 119,4 % en cantidades y del 92,9 % en montos.
• QR code payments: they accounted for 15%, reaching 44.1 million transactions (72.8% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS260.2 billion (59.1% y.o.y.).
• Online payments: they accounted for the remaining 85%, reaching 249.5 million transactions (130.4% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS1.65 trillion (99.5% y.o.y.).

Payment accounts and funds invested through PSPCPs:

In November, 16.1 million payment accounts with balances totaling ARS226.3 billion were recorded, whereas the balances of money market funds reached ARS730 billion. Payment accounts and money market funds jointly accounted for 3.32% of total private sector deposits, which amounted to ARS28.8 trillion in that month.

Instant debit (DEBIN):

There were 35 million DEBINs (31.1% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS981.9 billion (27.3% y.o.y.). In terms of the number of transactions, 0.4% were one-time DEBINs and 99.6%, recurring DEBINs.

Direct debits:

There were 11.5 million debits (1.2% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS484.4 billion (-25.6% y.o.y.), reaching a 60.3% success rate.

Checks: electronic checks (ECHEQs) accounted for 67% of cleared amounts.

• A total of 4.8 million checks (in paper and electronic form) were cleared for ARS5.6 trillion. The share of ECHEQs in total cleared checks was 41.8% (1.9 million) in terms of volume and 67% (ARS3.8 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 0.47% in terms of value.

Cards: debit card use doubles credit card use.

• Debit cards: there were 252.3 million debit card transactions for an amount of ARS2.1 trillion, exhibiting a change of 43.6% y.o.y. in volume, and of 21.4% y.o.y. in value.
• Credit cards: the number of credit card transactions reached 118.3 million for an amount of ARS2.4 trillion, changing 14.4% y.o.y. in volume, and 9.7% y.o.y. in value.

Transportation prepaid cards:

There were 425.3 million trips (6.9% y.o.y.) paid with SUBE cards for a total of ARS19.9 billion (-11.2% y.o.y.).

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

In December, 89.6% of transactions were made in pesos, with 134.8 thousand electronic invoices processed in the system for the open transfer of e-invoices (sistema de circulación abierta, SCA) for an amount of ARS546 billion.

Withdrawals:

• Withdrawals from ATMs: there were 93.9 million withdrawals from 17,498 ATMs for an amount of ARS1.7 trillion. The average number of monthly withdrawals per ATM was 5,368 with an average withdrawal amount of ARS18.1 thousand.
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• Non-bank withdrawals through debit cards: there were 5 million withdrawals for an amount of ARS82.8 billion.
• Withdrawals through transfers: there were 2.6 million withdrawals for an amount of ARS54.8 billion.
• Withdrawals from payment accounts in agencies and stores: there were 3 million withdrawals for an amount of ARS67.7 billion.

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January 30, 2024