The presentation of the labor reform project in Congress confirmed, among other things, the decision of the government of expand the means by which employees’ salaries can be accredited, This opens the game to non-banking virtual wallets, which were previously banned.
Employees can currently decide Which institution you receive your salary from, if it is a regulated financial company. As the project is developed, employees in a dependent relationship will also be able to do this Choose one of the 200 virtual wallets which are registered with the Central Bank under the name of payment service providers.
And not just the banks’ traditional competitors like the giant payment market, could benefit from this change. Other companies, not just from the fintech sector, could also fight with banks for this business. The most emblematic case is YPF. The flag oil company has registered in its application 4.5 million people, 3 million of whom use it regularly. Recently it introduced the ability to pay for services and top-ups in its wallets.
That opens the door for them Offering to manage more than 10 million payroll accounts that currently exist in Argentina.
In addition to salary accounts, a prize that has been controversial between banks and fintech since the beginning of Javier Milei’s government, the labor reform project introduces one new point of contention: Payments to the more than 500,000 “platform workers” This also includes the delivery drivers Rappi or order now and the drivers of apps like Cabify or Uber.
The fact is that, among all the requirements that the legislator would establish for these “independent providers”, the wording of the project also lists the requirements that they must comply with “have a bank account or electronic wallet whose Uniform Bank Key (CBU) or Uniform Virtual Key (CVU) must be duly communicated to the technological platform in order to receive the relevant transfers for its services.”
This is how the project is equivalent to traditional banks and virtual wallets in the possibility of managing the income of Argentine workers. This point has been largely met with resistance in the banking sector since December 2023, when President Milei’s first DNU containing this possibility was announced.
Recently, the banks associated in the ADEBA (the chamber that brings together private companies with national capital) explained in a technical note the “risks” that would come with moving forward on this pathnot only for users, but also for the Argentine financial system. On the one hand, the companies claim that fintech companies do not have the necessary regulation and supervision from the Central Bank and assert that the latter does not provide guarantees for the funds deposited with them.
Banks also emphasized the gratuitousness of salary accounts and those related to the collection of pensions. This point is crucial because most of the services that virtual wallets offer today are also free for their users.
In practice, many workers currently receive their salaries in a bank account, but transfer a large portion of these funds to other wallets to earn from the earnings of the FCIs and the remunerated accounts they offer. This phenomenon is reflected in the monthly increase in instant transfers. According to the BCRA, these totaled $78.8 billion in October, according to the latest available data, representing a year-on-year increase of 24.7% and 34.8% in volumes and real amounts, respectively. 75.2% of transactions had a virtual wallet as their origin and/or destination.
Come along in the fintech sector good eyes The progress of this deregulation against a segment that, in their opinion, remains “captured” by the banks.
The Argentine Fintech Chamber presented a document explaining that virtual wallets are regulated by the central office and that 100% of users’ funds are deposited into bank accounts, upon request and separated from the company’s assets. “The wallets meet strict standards for security, fraud prevention, money laundering and reporting. There has never been a case in which a regulated payment service provider did not return funds to its users,” the document emphasized.
“What’s up for discussion is these Privileges “We want to maintain traditional banking and the freedom of choice of millions of people in Argentina,” say the fintech companies.
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