He Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD) reported that the transactions of the Securities Payment and Settlement System (Sipard) grew 14.3% at the end of 2024, going from 1.3 trillion pesos to 1.5 trillion pesos, for an increase of more than 190,666.7 million pesos, compared to 2023.
This includes all operations carried out with bank cards (credit, debit and prepaid), social subsidy cards, direct debits and credits, checks, refillsbill payments and bank subagentsand that the BCRD processed in the gross settlement system in real time (RTGS).
Operations settled through the system RTGS corresponding to the consumption made in commercial establishments of the country through credit cardsdebit, prepaid and social subsidies increased 18.6% compared to 2023, going from 801,709.3 million pesos to 951,118 million pesos.
According to the monetary entity This increase, of 149,408.6 million pesos, is due to a greater preference for the use of this payment instrument and the increase in the amount of active cards.
For their part, the fund transfers and payments through direct debit and credit services managed by the Dominican Card Consortium, SA (CardNet) and GCS Systems, LTD., grew 16.0% for the same period, going from 312,813.5 million pesos to 362,810.9 million pesos.
The balance is an indication of the preference of the bank clients for the use of electronic channels to carry out these financial operations.
Expansion of All Payment
In an article published in its Open Page section, the technicians of the Central Bank highlighted the significant increase of 72.8% in transactions in the payment system of refills and payment of invoices managed by the company All Payment Dominicana SA
This amount went from 9,031.7 million pesos, in 2023, to 15,604.5 million pesos, at the end of 2024, for an increase of 6,572.8 million pesos in that period, as a result of an expansion of the service portfolio and greater use of payment couriers.
Banking sub-agents and checks
The settlements of operations carried out through the bank subagents –commercial establishments authorized to provide certain financial services representing financial intermediation entities in places with limited access to these services, increased 15.3% last year, the result of greater transactions through these channels of financial services.
With regards to the checks presented by financial intermediation entities through the compensation system checks and settled in the system RTGSthese reached the amount of 187,917.9 million in 2024, for a decrease of 7.7% compared to the 203,515 million processed in 2023.
The reduction is a sign of the constant trend towards a increased use of instruments of electronic payments.
At the end of 2024, the real-time gross settlement system (RTGS) registered 34,227,921 payment operations in national currency, for an increase of 41.6%, equivalent to 10,051,125 operations compared to 2023, thanks to greater use of the payment service. Instant Payments from the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD). Likewise, 1,692,360 were processed transactions in US dollars, for an increase of 24.0%, equivalent to 327,571 operations, compared to the year 2023.
