In the middle Labor reform debate in Congress, The banks once again expressed their displeasure with the spirit of the official project that allows the crediting of the salaries of formal workers in virtual wallets. The entities had already expressed their opposition to this point of the package opens the battle to manage more than 10 million payroll accounts.
As part of the debate on modernizing labor relations in the nation’s Senate, Marcelo Mazzon, Representative of theThe Association of Public and Private Banks of the Argentine Republic (ABAPPRA), expressed his vigorous rejection of Article 35 of the reform proposal. According to the manager, the activation of virtual wallets to pay salaries endangers the liquidity of the system and productive creditworthiness.
During his presentation at the plenary session on work and budget, Mazzón described the possible implementation of this measure as the creation of a new “black swan” for the Argentine economy. The points raised by Mazzón are consistent with the position expressed by the banks in recent weeks: for companies, the “opening” of this business involves security risks and possible consequences on creditworthiness, and they even spoke of one possible “digital playpen”.
At the beginning of his speech, Mazzón emphasized that current salary accounts are 100% free and secure, backed by deposit insurance (SEDESA) and high international standards (Basel). a level of trust that PSPs (Payment Service Providers, also known as “digital wallets”) do not yet possess, according to your posture.
On the other hand, the representative of ABAPPRA explained thisSavings recorded through salary accounts are the “raw material” that banks convert into loans for investment, production and employment. By redirecting these funds to virtual wallets that transfer their balance to the FCI (where the reserve requirement is 100%), the possibility of financing Argentine companies and consumers is eliminated.
Mazzón warned against this If many digital wallet users decide to use their physical money at the same time, FCIs would have to quickly liquidate their positions to transfer them to bank accounts, which would eventually create a bottleneck in the payment system Money would be digitally visible but operationally non-existent in the bank’s branch network. “It would be the first digital playpen in the world,” he warned.
Another point that would be affected, according to the representative of the public bank, is that Cash management. He highlighted that public banks carry out “cash deliveries” across the country, traveling up to 3,000 km per week to supply ATMs in remote towns. If the deposits do not remain in the banking system, it will be economically unviable He argued that this would guarantee the availability of cash inland.
Finally, he warned that the actions encouraged in Article 35 ““Shadow Banks” or shadow banking, a phenomenon that has already led to global financial crises in the past (2008) and which lacks strict regulation by the central bank
Currently, employees can choose which institution they receive their salary from, as long as it is a regulated financial institution. If the project is approved, dependent employees will also be able to choose one of the 200 virtual wallets that appear registered with the Central Bank under the name “Payment Service Provider”.
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