The possibility of allowing salaries and pensions to be paid through virtual wallets, as envisaged in the government’s draft labor reform, met with strong opposition from banking associations. The associations that bring together the companies warned that the initiative lowers security standards, puts assets at risk and weakens the stability of the financial system.
According to a technical document prepared by ADEBA, ABA and ABAPPRA, the current system, which requires salaries and benefits to be deposited into a bank account regulated by the central bank, has been one of the few stable consensuses of the last three decades. The text recalled that even in serious crises such as the corralito, the default or the pandemic, there were no losses or delays in the collection of salaries: “The system has proven effective even in the most severe stressful situations.”
The companies explained that virtual wallets are not subject to regulatory regulation, do not guarantee the integrity of funds and are not part of the financial security network that protects deposits. “The recent cases of Wenance or Sur Finanzas highlight the importance of prior authorization and continuous monitoring by the BCRA,” the report said.
Another critical point is the impact on creditworthiness. When salaries first reach wallets, the funds end up concentrated in common investment funds, which then return to the financial system as institutional deposits and cannot be used for long-term loans. They warn that this will restrict the creditworthiness of banks, companies and families.
The document also warns of systemic risks: the transfer of funds to non-bank platforms fuels what they call “shadow banking,” an unsupervised segment whose expansion has been crucial in international crises such as the 2008 subprime crisis. In Argentina, they calculate, this peripheral intermediation already exceeds 5 trillion pesos.
The banking associations make it clear that employees retain full freedom even under the current regulation: As soon as the salary is credited to their free bank account, they can – “at their own risk” – transfer all or part of the money to the wallet of their choice. Additionally, they emphasize that the salary account market is highly competitive and offers benefits, promotions and services that are not guaranteed outside of the banking system.
In their conclusions, the chambers reiterate that allowing salaries to be paid through wallets does not bring any obvious benefits, but entails significant costs and risks for workers, pensioners and for the stability of the system. And they warn that anyone seeking to make the rules more flexible “must be aware that this decision puts workers and pensioners at risk of losing their salaries if the purse they hold experiences financial difficulties or mismanagement.”
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