The Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) announced this Wednesday the circulation of a new 100-peso bill, which arrives just as the depreciation of the currency against the dollar worsens and the collapse of the ATM network on the island. The institution pointed out that this denomination is printed with the date of 2023 and preserves the main characteristics of the previous issues.
However, the new paper, which will circulate simultaneously with the previous versions, does not have relief to the touch and is not in Braille for the blind, without the authorities offering an explanation in this regard. The banknote maintains the BCC logo and the signature of the president of the Central Bank, while the legend and the year of printing appear in magenta.
The announcement of this note comes at a particularly hard time for Cubans, who have to wait in long lines to withdraw money from the few ATMs that still hold cash. “Imagine the level of stress that this causes,” settled a neighbor from Central Havana who had to go through three bank points to find one available.
The man explained to 14ymedio that he sent money to his sister in Párraga, in the Arroyo Naranjo municipality of Havana, to help her with the expenses of an operation that her son will undergo. However, when she went to the ATM she was unable to get the cash because they were out of order.
“I gave it to her by transfer because I can’t go there, where she is, because she lives quite far away,” he said, recalling that moving is not an alternative either because of the fuel shortage the island is facing.
ATMs in Cuba are not enough. No less than 150 of the 521 that the Metropolitan Bank (Banmet) has are out of service in Havana, which means 30% of them damaged. so it confirmed the banking institution to the official press last Sunday.
to one consultation from the journalist Francisco Rodríguez Cruz, the bank’s management responded that the technicians are working to repair the faults in the dispenser modules and keyboards, which are the parts with the most breaks, while they await the entry of new parts for next week.
In its note, the bank assured that “more than 160 million pesos go out daily for this equipment” and that they need a change “due to their technological obsolescence”, but that they do not have “an immediate response.” What have been enabled, he insisted, are “domestic alternatives” to mitigate the crisis.
The bank explains that it has increased electronic charges with “all” agents that offer services or sell merchandise. Similarly, customers have the option of using the Caja Extra trade unit to obtain cash at the 1,904 authorized warehouses and at least one branch per municipality has extended hours on weekends.
What the banking authorities do not say is that in many wineries they argue that they have no connection with Transfermóvil so as not to dispense cash, or that they do not have money in the box because everyone has paid electronically that day. The amounts that can be withdrawn are also low.
From April 8 to 14, cash withdrawals exceeded 200 million daily, but many ATMs, the institution acknowledged, are only authorized to carry out electronic operations and balance inquiries.
The bank’s response generated discontent among social media netizens, who claim that it is “common” to hear “complaints” from officials about things that do not work well in Cuba, but few solutions are offered, such as the availability of POS payment terminals. in business.
On Infanta street, one of the busiest arteries in Central Havana, there are three ATMs, but those two are broken and the one that works has screen problems that make it difficult to view information, a Cuban complained.
In addition to the Cuban capital, the ATM crisis extends to the interior of the country, such as Sancti Spíritus, where this week the banking authorities defended that there is no shortage of cash in the agencies. “Never, none of the entities has stopped paying the salary due to lack of money,” she told Escambray María Efigenia Caballero, director of Banco Popular de Ahorro (BPA).
The director assured that the 11 BPA ATMs in the province operate normally, although many of them are old and overused. A resident of the northern outskirts of the city of Sancti Spíritus, a resident of Sancti Spíritus assured 14ymedio which is “simply a lie”, since in reality there are only nine units and most of them are located in the center. “For example, I have to walk about six kilometers to get to an ATM, and it’s not always working,” she complained.
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