This is a monthly report analyzing the status and development of retail means of payment.

The month of analysis is March 2026 except for withdrawals, credit cards, debit cards and transport cards that the information corresponds to February 2026 and prepaid cards to December 2025 (latest available data).

In March, remittances in pesos (immediate “push” transfers) saw a growth in amounts of 25.6% YoY.

− In pesos: 731.5 million transactions were registered for $82.2 billion, implying year-on-year increases of 25.6% and 15.7% in amounts and real amounts3, respectively. 76.3% of the transactions had a CVU as their origin and/or destination.
− In foreign currency: 2.2 million operations were registered (25% YoY) for USD 3,222.5 million (24.9% YoY in currency of origin).

Money inflows in pesos (“pull” instant transfers) reached 41.6 million operations in March.

− 41.6 million transfers were made for $3.9 trillion, representing year-on-year increases of 9.8% in amounts and 8.3% in real amounts.

Interoperable wire transfer payments (PCT) through the QR totaled 99.6 million transactions in pesos.

− 100.8 million PCT operations were carried out (62.7% YoY) in pesos, for a total of $2.3 trillion (67.5% YoY in real terms).

– QR: 98.8% of PCTs were initiated with QR codes, representing 99.6 million payments (66.9% YoY) for $2.3 trillion (73.1% YoY in real terms). 53.5% were made by customers who used their demand accounts (CBU) and 46.5% in their payment accounts (CVU). For its part, in stores, 53.1% of transactions were credited to payment accounts, while the remaining 46.9% were channeled to demand accounts.

Currently, 88 interoperable digital wallets and 62 PCT acceptors are registered with the BCRA.

– With random keys: 1.2% used a token for the start of PCTs; It is about 1.2 million operations (-46.7% YoY) for $39.3 billion (-41.8% YoY in real terms).

Payment accounts and funds invested through PSPCPs

In February, out of a total of 69.6 million payment accounts, 16.9 million had a balance for a total of $ 0.77 trillion pesos. For its part, the balances invested in FCI of money reached $ 7.2 trillion in the same month. Considered together, both concepts represented 7.2% of the total deposits in pesos of the private sector. A total of 218 PSPCPs are currently included in the Register of Payment Service Providers.

Direct debit

In March, 11.4 million direct debits were made (-5.8% YoY) for a total of $1.9 trillion (4.4% YoY in real terms). The effectiveness rate10 reached 41.5%.

Checks. 82.9% of the amounts compensated in March corresponded to ECHEQ

− 5.1 million checks (physical and electronic in pesos) were cleared for a total of $22.4 billion. ECHEQ’s share of the total number of cleared persons reached 62% in quantities (3.1 million electronic checks) and 82.9% in amounts ($18.6 billion).
− Likewise, given the implementation of ECHEQ in dollars, 74 checks were cleared in March for a total amount of USD 27.5 million.
− Rejections for reasons of “insufficient funds”: the ratio to the total number of compensated totaled 2.2% in amounts and 1.6% in amounts.

Cards: The use of debit cards surpassed credit cards

− Debit: 160.4 million transactions were made for $4.8 trillion pesos in January (latest available data), with decreases of 9.5% YoY in amounts and 15.1%
YoY in real amounts. Likewise, in February, 11.2 thousand transactions were made in foreign currency for USD 6 million (97.7% were processed through the e-commerce channel).
− Credit: year-on-year variations of -7.7% in amounts and -14.5% in real amounts were observed, with 153.2 million payments being made for $8.9 trillion. The most used channels were e-commerce with 37.9%, POS and QR with 37.5%, and automatic debit with 14.9% in quantities.

The interoperable QR reached 5% of the total number of credit cards, in quantities. For its part, the one-payment modality represented 87.4% in amounts and 65% in amounts of the total operations.

Transport

− Prepaid transport cards: about 222.7 million trips were made (-21.3
% YoY) using the SUBE card in February, totaling $0.13 trillion (a decrease of 8.1% YoY in real terms11).
− QR trips: 24 million trips were made in March, totaling $26.5 billion, mainly on buses (21.7 million, 90.2% of the total) and on the different 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.

Extractions

89% of withdrawals were made from ATMs.

− ATMs: in February (latest available data) 41.3 million withdrawals were made from the 17,192 available ATMs for a total of $4 billion, with approximately 2,404 being the average number of withdrawals at each ATM in the month. The average withdrawal amount reached $97 thousand.
− Extrabank withdrawals with debit cards: 3.1 million withdrawals for $0.2 billion, with an average amount of $66.3 thousand.
− Extrabank withdrawals from intra-PSPCP (“closed loop”) payment accounts: 1.9 million withdrawals for $0.12 billion, with an average amount of $61 thousand.

March Regulatory Summary

Communication A 8406 of the BCRA provided for the creation of the Collection with Transfer (CCT) as the only modality of immediate transfers enabled to make recurring collections, using an explicit account consent – at sight or payment – based on OAuth 2.0. As of 08/31/26, this modality must be available for the collection of any concept linked to loans, which are payable in fixed and equal installments during the extension of the contract (except when the application of a moratorium or punitive interest derived from the retries corresponds, or for variations corresponding to admitted insurance). Only 1 (one) attempt to collect will be allowed for each period and 2 (two) reattempts, among other parameters of the operation and the responsibilities of the participants established by the CCT regulations.