Report on Retail Payments

The report analyzes information as of March 2026, except for that involving withdrawals, credit cards, debit cards, and transportation cards, which is updated as of February 2026, and that on prepaid cards, which is updated as of December 2025 (latest data available).

In March, instant push transfers in pesos increased 25.6% y.o.y. in volume.

− In pesos: There were 731.5 million instant push transfers for an amount of ARS82.2 trillion, climbing 25.6% y.o.y. in volume, and 15.7% y.o.y. in value, in real terms. Seventy-six point three 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 (25% y.o.y.) for an amount of USD3,222.5 million (24.9% y.o.y. in original currency).

Instant pull transfers in pesos reached 41.6 million in February.

− There were 41.6 million transfers for an amount of ARS3.9 trillion, up 9.8% y.o.y. in volume and 8.3% y.o.y. in value, in real terms.

Interoperable payments by transfer (PCTs) using QR codes totaled 99.6 million transactions in pesos.

− There were 100.8 million PCT transactions (62.7% y.o.y.) in pesos, for a total of ARS2.3 trillion (67.5% y.o.y. in real terms).

– QR: 98.8% of PCTs were initiated through QR codes—99.6 million payments (66.9% y.o.y.) for ARS2.3 trillion (73.1% y.o.y. in real terms). Payments from sight accounts (CBU) represented 53.5%, and payments from payment accounts (CVU), 46.5%. At stores, 53.1% of transactions were credited to payment accounts, while the other 46.9% were channeled to sight accounts.

Currently, there are 88 interoperable e-wallets and 62 PCT acquirers registered with the BCRA.

–Token payments: 1.2% of interoperable PCTs were made through a token, accounting for 1.2 million payments (-46.7% y.o.y.) for an amount of ARS39.3 billion (-41.8% 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 February, there were 69.6 million payment accounts, out of which 16.9 million recorded a balance totaling ARS0.77 trillion. In turn, the balances of money market funds reached ARS7.2 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 218 PSPCPs included in the Registry of Payment Service Providers.

Direct debit

In March, there were 11.4 million direct debits (-5.8% y.o.y.) for a total of ARS1.9 trillion (4.4% y.o.y. in real terms), with a success rate of 41.5%.

Checks. Electronic checks (ECHEQs) accounted for 82.9% of cleared amounts in March

− A total of 5.1 million checks (in paper and electronic form in pesos) were cleared for ARS22.4 trillion. The share of e-checks in total cleared checks was 62% (3.1 million) in terms of volume and 82.9% (ARS18.6 trillion) in terms of value.
− Additionally, 74 e-checks in dollars were cleared for a total of USD27.5 million in March.
− Checks returned for insufficient funds: The rate of returned checks for insufficient funds over total cleared checks was 2.2% in terms of volume, and 1.6% in terms of value.

Cards. Debit card use exceeded credit card use

− Debit cards: There were 160.4 million debit card transactions for an amount of ARS4.8 trillion in January (latest data available), exhibiting a decrease of 9.5% y.o.y. in volume, and of 15.1% y.o.y. in value, in real terms. Also, in February there were 11.2 thousand transactions in foreign currency for USD6 million (97.7% were channeled through e-commerce).
− Credit cards: The number of credit card transactions reached 153.2 million for an amount of ARS8.9 trillion, changing -7.7% y.o.y. in volume, and -14.5% y.o.y. in value, in real terms. The most commonly used channels in terms of volume included: e-commerce, 37.9%; POS and QR, 37.5%; and automatic debit, 14.9%.

Interoperable QR codes represented 5% of total credit cards in terms of volume. Lump-sum payments accounted for 87.4% in terms of volume and 65% in terms of value.

Transportation

− Transportation prepaid cards: There were almost 222.7 million trips (-21.3% y.o.y.) paid with SUBE cards in February for a total of ARS0.13 trillion (falling 8.1% y.o.y. in real terms).
− Public transport fares paid through QR codes: In March there were 24 million trips for a total of ARS26.5 billion, mostly in buses (21.7 million, 90.2% of the total) and subway lines (2.4 million, 9.8%).

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

In the month of analysis, 87.3% of the operations were carried out in pesos, entering the open circulation system (SCA) 75.9 thousand invoices in that currency for $ 1.6 trillion.

Withdrawals

89% percent of withdrawals were made from ATMs.

− Withdrawals from ATMs: In February (latest data available), there were 41.3 million withdrawals from 17,192 ATMs for an amount of ARS4 trillion. The average number of monthly withdrawals per ATM was around 2,404 averaging ARS97 thousand.
− Non-banks withdrawals through debit cards: There were 3.1 million transactions amounting to ARS0.2 trillion, withdrawals averaging ARS66.3 thousand.
− Non-bank withdrawals from payment accounts belonging to the same PSPCP (closed loop): 1.9 million transactions were conducted for ARS0.12 trillion, withdrawals averaging ARS61 thousand.

March regulatory summary

BCRA’s Communication A 8406 established the creation of collection by transfer (cobro con transferencia, CCT) as the only type of instant transfer authorized for receiving recurring payments, based on an account consent—either a sight account or a payment account—using the OAuth 2.0 framework. Since August 31, 2026, this feature must be available for collecting anything related to a loan that is repayable in fixed and equal installments during the term of the agreement. Exceptions apply in cases where a default interest rate or late payment fees must be charged due to failed collection attempts, or in the event of variations arising from insurance. Only one (1) attempt per period shall be allowed, plus two (2) retries, among some of the operational parameters and responsibilities for participants established under the CCT framework.