Report on Retail Payments

The report analyzes information as of August 2026, except for that involving withdrawals, credit cards, debit cards, prepaid cards, and transportation cards, which is updated as of July 2026 (latest data available).

In August, instant push transfers in pesos increased 20.3% y.o.y. in volume.

− In pesos: There were 779 million instant push transfers for an amount of ARS96 trillion, climbing 20.3% y.o.y. in volume, and 5.5% y.o.y. in value, in real terms.
Seventy-six point nine percent of transactions were made from or to a virtual account through a single virtual code known as CVU.
− In foreign currency: There were 2.2 million transactions (18.5% y.o.y.) for an amount of USD3,792 million (43.5% y.o.y. in original currency).

Instant pull transfers in pesos reached 44.5 million in August.

− There were 44.5 million transfers for an amount of ARS4.7 trillion, up 14.3% y.o.y. in volume and 1.6% y.o.y. in value, in real terms.

Interoperable Payment by transfer (PCTs) using QR codes totaled 117.2 million transactions in pesos.

− There were 118.3 million PCT transactions (65.6% y.o.y.) in pesos, for a total of ARS3 trillion (60.4% y.o.y. in real terms).
o QR: 99.1% of of PCTs were initiated through QR codes—117.2 million payments (67.5% y.o.y.) for ARS2.9 trillion (62.9% y.o.y. in real terms). Payments from sight accounts (CBU) represented 52.7%, and payments from payment accounts (CVU), 47.3%. At stores, 53.8% of transactions were credited to payment accounts, while the other 46.2% were channeled to sight accounts.

Currently, there are 92 interoperable e-wallets and 67 PCT acquirers registered with the BCRA.

o Token payments: 0.9% of interoperable PCTs were made through a token, accounting for 1.1 million payments (-23.8% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS40.8 billion (-23.2% y.o.y. in real terms).

Payment accounts and funds invested through payment service providers that offer payment accounts (proveedores de servicios de pago que ofrecen cuentas de pago, PSPCPs)

In July, there were 67.3 million payment accounts, out of which 15.8 million recorded a balance totaling ARS0.9 trillion. In turn, the balances of money market funds reached ARS8.9 trillion in the same month. Payment accounts and money market funds jointly accounted for 7.2% of total private sector deposits in pesos. There are currently 233 PSPCPs included in the Registry of Payment Service Providers.

Direct debit

In August, there were 11.1 million direct debits (-4.6% y.o.y.) for a total of ARS2.2 trillion (2.2% y.o.y. in real terms),
with a success rate of 40.4%.

Checks. Electronic checks (ECHEQs) accounted for 87.2% of cleared amounts in August.

− A total of 4.8 million checks (in paper and electronic form in pesos) were cleared for ARS27.5 trillion. The share of e-checks in total cleared checks was 65.6% (3.1 million) in terms of volume and 87.2% (ARS24 trillion) in terms of value, increasing 7.8 p.p. and 6 p.p. against August 2025.
− Additionally, 247 e-checks in dollars were cleared for a total of USD39.3 million in August.
− Checks returned for insufficient funds: The rate of returned checks for insufficient funds over total cleared checks was 1.7% in terms of volume, and 1% in terms of value, (-0.2 p.p. and -0.1 p.p. respectively, against July 2026).

Cards. Debit card use exceeded credit card use.

− Debit cards: There were 172 million debit card transactions for an amount of ARS5.7 trillion in July (latest data available), exhibiting a decrease of 8.4% y.o.y. in volume, and of 14.7% y.o.y. in value, in real terms.
Also, in July there were 10.3 thousand transactions in foreign currency for USD6.1 million (97.1% were channeled through e-commerce).
− Credit cards: The number of credit card transactions reached 159.3 million for an amount of ARS10 trillion, changing -9.2% y.o.y. in volume, and -17.6% y.o.y. in value, in real terms. The most commonly used channels in terms of volume included: e-commerce, 41.7%; POS and QR, 33.5%; and automatic debit, 15.9%. Interoperable QR codes represented 4.8% of total credit card transactions in terms of volume. Lump-sum payments accounted for 88.6% in terms of volume and 67.7% in terms of value.

Transport

− Transport prepaid cards: There were almost 270.2 million trips (-22% y.o.y.) paid with SUBE cards in July for a total of ARS0.19 trillion (falling 1.7% y.o.y. in real terms).
− Public transport fares paid through QR codes: In August there were 26.3 million trips for a total of ARS36.4 billion, mostly in buses (23.5 million, 89.1% of the total) and subway lines (2.9 million, 10.9%).

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

In August, 85.9% of transactions were made in pesos. In other words, 66.5 thousand electronic invoices for an amount of ARS1.7 trillion were processed in the system for the open transfer of e-invoices (sistema de circulación abierta, SCA).

Withdrawals

Eighty eight point four percent of withdrawals were made from ATMs. This channel recorded a y.o.y. decrease of 28% in volume and 16% in value in total real terms.
− Withdrawals from ATMs: in July (latest data available), there were 41 million withdrawals from 16,662 ATMs for an amount of ARS4.8 trillion. The average number of monthly withdrawals per ATM was around 2,459 averaging ARS118.3 thousand in terms of value.
− Non-bank withdrawals through debit cards: There were 3.1 million transactions amounting to ARS0.2 trillion, withdrawals averaging ARS72.1 thousand.
− Non-bank withdrawals from payment accounts belonging to the same PSPCP (closed loop): 2.3 million transactions were conducted for ARS0.18 trillion, withdrawals averaging ARS81.4 thousand.

August Regulatory Summary

Communication A 8471 strengthened the fraud risk management regime applicable to payment service providers. For payment service providers that offer payment accounts (PSPCPs), it established the gradual implementation of a comprehensive operational risk management framework, including fraud risk, with requirements related to governance, anti-fraud policies, designated responsible parties, monitoring, mitigation, and reporting. In turn, it introduced simplified obligations for other payment service providers (PSPs), aimed at ensuring the existence of accountable officers responsible for fraud risk management, the performance of fraud risk self-assessments, the development of mitigation plans, and the implementation of information technology and security controls.