Monthly report that analyzes the state and evolution of retail means of payment.

The month of analysis is December 2024, except for withdrawals, credit cards, debit cards and transport cards that the information corresponds to November 2024 and prepaid cards that include the data available as of September 2024.

Money transfers (immediate “push” transfers): reported a growth in amounts of 43% y.o.y.

• In pesos: 603.4 million transactions were registered for $54.9 billion, which imply year-on-year increases of 43% and 29.8%, in quantities and amounts respectively. 73.8% had a CVU as their origin and/or destination.
• In foreign currency: 1.9 million operations (159.1% YoY) were registered for USD 3,134 million (182.6% YoY).

Money deposits (immediate “pull” transfers): 46.5 million operations.

• 46.5 million transfers were made for $ 3.2 billion, 14.4% in amounts and 27.6% in amounts, compared to November.

Payments by transfer (PCT): the interoperable QR reached 62.6 million transactions.

• Interoperable: 66.9 million operations were carried out (58% YoY) for a total of $1,152.4 billion (23.1% YoY).
  • QR: 93.5% started with interoperable QRs, representing 62.6 million payments (117.4% YoY) for $1,052.9 billion (114.3% YoY). 66.5% were made by customers who used their demand accounts and 33.5% their payment accounts. Likewise, 46.1% of businesses credited demand accounts and 53.9% in payment accounts.
    Currently, 67 interoperable digital wallets are registered with the BCRA.
  • With random keys: 6.5% used a token for their startup; These are 4.3 million operations (-32.3% YoY) for $99.4 billion (-34.3% YoY).

Payment accounts and funds invested through PSPCPs:

In November, out of a total of 53.1 million accounts, 14.4 million payment accounts were registered with a balance totaling 432.4 billion pesos, while the balances invested in FCI of money reached 3.4 trillion pesos. Both concepts, considered together, represent 5.31% of the total deposits in pesos of the private sector, which was $ 72.8 billion in the aforementioned month. At present, 168 PSPCPs are included in the registry.

Direct debit:

12.4 million debits (7.4% YoY) were made for $1.2 trillion (16.6% YoY), with an effectiveness rate that reached 52.4%.

Checks: 78% of the amounts cleared correspond to the ECHEQ.

• 5.1 million checks (physical and electronic) totaling $15.5 billion were cleared. ECHEQ’s share of the total number of cleared persons reached 52.1% in quantities (2.6 million electronic checks) and 78% in amounts ($12.1 billion).
• Rejections for reasons of “insufficient funds”: the ratio to the total number of compensated reached 0.77% in quantities and 0.6% in amounts.

Cards: the use of debit cards remains above credit cards.

• Debit: 232.9 million transactions were made for $4.9 trillion, with variations of -7.7% YoY in amounts and -12.2% YoY in amounts.
• Credit: year-on-year variations of 22.9% in amounts and 7.8% in amounts are observed, with 173.3 million payments being made for $8.1 trillion. The channels used are POS and QR with 42%, e-commerce with 32.4%, followed by automatic debit with 15.4%.
• Prepaid card: 42.3 million payments were made for $616.6 billion, representing increases of 97.3% and 65.9% YoY, in amounts and amounts respectively.

Prepaid transport cards:

372 million trips (-12.5% YoY) were made through the SUBE card, totaling $120.9 billion (128.5% YoY).

Electronic Invoicing for MSMEs (FCEM):

In the month of analysis, 88.8% of the operations were carried out in pesos, entering the open circulation system (SCA) 125.8 thousand invoices for $ 1.2 trillion.

Extractions:

90% of withdrawals are made from ATMs.

• ATMs: 80.7 million withdrawals were made from the 17,107 ATMs for a total of $3.2 billion, with the average number of withdrawals at each ATM being 4,721. The average withdrawal amount reached $39.1k.
• Extrabank debit cards: 5.2 million for $225.9 billion, with an average amount of $43.7 thousand. 
• Extrabank from intra PSPCP (“closed loop”) payment accounts: 3.4 million for $145.1 billion, with the average amount being $42.9 thousand.