The Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA), implemented as of this Friday a new restriction for purchases in dollars with credit and debit cardsin the context of the fall in reserves and greater restrictions to access dollars for importers.
In a BCRA circular issued after the Board meeting, the monetary authority reported that it decided to incorporate into the operations that require prior approval from the bank to make payments abroad for the use of credit, purchase, debit or prepaid cards issued in the country, the acquisition of gift cards or equivalents from stores or premises located in abroad, known as gift cards.
In this way, the purchase of gift cards such as those from Amazon, Playstation or Apple, among others, will not be allowed because the BCRA sees it as another form of dollarization.
Until today, those who wanted to could purchase gift cards from different stores and brands abroad using Argentine credit and debit cards.
From now on, it will not be possible to do more and an explicit authorization from the BCRA will be required, which in practice implies that its purchase will be prohibited because when the consumer wants to buy it, the payment will automatically be rejected.
Task for banks and credit cards
The provision will be difficult for banks and credit cards to implement because many of these gift cards can be purchased in supermarkets and pharmacies abroad, so credit and debit card issuers must be able to discriminate the purchase at the time it is made.
It will be necessary to see what specific margin they can implement in those establishments to automatically prohibit that debit.
The list of prohibited consumptions
Gift cards are not the only elements prohibited by the BCRA through the purchase of Argentine credit, debit or prepaid cards.
This new restriction is added to those already in force in the exchange regulations of the BCRA. The operations that must have the prior approval of the monetary authority to access the exchange market to make payments abroad are:
1. participation in games of chance and bets of different types
2. the transfer of funds to accounts at Payment Service Providers (virtual wallets)
3. The transfer of funds to investment accounts in investment managers located abroad
4. carrying out exchange operations abroad
5. the acquisition of crypto assets
6. the acquisition of jewellery, precious stones and precious metals (gold, silver, platinum, etc.).
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