Monthly Report on Retail Payments, August 2024

The month under analysis is August 2024, except for the following: withdrawals, credit cards, debit cards and travel cards (information as of July 2024); and prepaid cards (information as of June 2024).

Instant push transfers increased 106.9% y.o.y. in volume.

• In pesos: there were 620.8 million instant push transfers for an amount of ARS52.5 trillion, climbing 106.9% y.o.y. in volume, and 47.1% y.o.y. in value. Fifty-three point seven percent of transfers were made from or to a virtual account through a single virtual code known as CVU.
• In foreign currency: there were 2.5 million transactions (267.7% y.o.y.) for an amount of USD3.3 billion (108.3% y.o.y.).

Instant pull transfers reached 2.3 million transactions.

• The 2.3 million transfers amounted to ARS164.4 billion, shrinking 0.8% in volume and 0.5% in value against July.

Payments by transfer (pagos con transferencia, PCTs): transactions with interoperable QR codes totaled 44.5 million.

• Interoperable: there were 48.9 million (63.7% y.o.y.) interoperable PCTs for ARS662.9 billion (-10.5% y.o.y.).
• QR code payments: 90.9% of interoperable PCTs were initiated through interoperable QR codes, accounting for 44.5 million payments (185% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS583.7 billion (141.9% y.o.y.). Payments from sight accounts represented 70.8%, and payments from payment accounts, 29.2%.
  Moreover, 51.6% of stores credited the funds collected to sight accounts, and 48.4% did so to payment accounts.

Sixty-two interoperable e-wallets are currently registered with the BCRA.
• Token payments: 9.1% of interoperable PCTs were made through a token, accounting for 4.4 million payments (-14.1% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS79.2 billion (-24.9% y.o.y.).

Payment accounts and funds invested through PSPCPs:

In July, out of 50.6 million accounts, there were 14.5 million payment accounts with balances totaling ARS417.1 billion, whereas the balances of money market funds reached ARS2.7 trillion. Payment accounts and money market funds jointly accounted for 5.26% of total private sector deposits, which amounted to ARS59.4 trillion in that month. Currently, there are 162 PSPCPs registered.

Instant debits (DEBINs):

There were 38.3 million DEBINs (23.3% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS2 trillion (8.4% y.o.y.). In terms of volume, 0.5% of transactions were one-time DEBINs and 99.5%, recurring DEBINs.

Direct debits:

There were 12.1 million debits (3.5% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS1 trillion (-21.4% y.o.y.), reaching a 56.7% effectiveness rate.

Checks: e-checks accounted for 75.2% of cleared amounts.

• A total of 4.9 million checks (in paper and electronic form) were cleared for ARS12.5 trillion. The share of e-checks in total cleared checks was 49% (2.4 million) in terms of volume and 75.2% (ARS9.4 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 0.4% in terms of value.

Cards: debit cards are more used than credit cards.

• Debit cards: there were 265.2 million debit card transactions for an amount of ARS4.9 trillion, exhibiting a change of 21.2% y.o.y. in volume, and of 0.2% y.o.y. in value.
• Credit cards: the number of credit card transactions reached 156.7 million for an amount of ARS6.1 trillion, changing 17% y.o.y. in volume, and -3.9% 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 386.2 million trips (1.5% y.o.y.) paid with SUBE cards for a total of ARS100.6 billion (70.8% y.o.y.).

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

In August, 88.5% of transactions were made in pesos. In other words, 103.9 thousand electronic invoices for an amount of ARS1.2 trillion were processed in the system for the open transfer of e-invoices (sistema de circulación abierta, SCA).

Withdrawals:

Ninety-three percent of withdrawals were made from ATMs.

Cajeros automáticos: se realizaron 94,9 millones de extracciones de los 17.062 ATM por un total de $ 2,8 billones, siendo la cantidad promedio de extracciones en cada ATM de 5.567. El monto de extracción promedio alcanzó $ 29,9 miles. Extrabancarias con tarjeta de débito : 6,9 millones por $ 254,3 mil millones, con un monto promedio de $ 36,6 miles.
• Extrabancarias desde cuentas de pago intra PSPCP (“closed loop”): 3,6 millones por $ 140,5 mil millones, siendo el monto promedio de $ 39,4 miles.

Withdrawals from ATMs: there were 94.9 million withdrawals from 17,062 ATMs for an amount of ARS2.8 trillion. The average number of monthly withdrawals per ATM was 5,567 while withdrawals averaged ARS29.9 thousand in terms of value.

Non-bank withdrawals through debit cards: there were 6.9 million transactions for an amount of ARS254.3 billion, withdrawals averaging ARS36.6 thousand in terms of value.

Non-bank withdrawals from accounts belonging to the same PSPCP (closed loop): there were 3.6 million transactions for an amount of ARS140.5 billion, withdrawals averaging ARS39.4 thousand in terms of value.

Download report - in Spanish -

To access previous editions, click here

September 27, 2024