Tourists Now Able to Pay with Foreign E-wallets at Financial Exchange Rate

On May 4, 2023, the Argentine Central Bank (BCRA) issued Communication "A" 7762, incorporating a new exception to the requirement of settling in the foreign exchange market. The exception involves "the collection of payments made by non-residents through e-wallets or any other payment method that implies an immediate debit in an account of a financial institution abroad or in a virtual account of a company abroad".

This measure is adopted after last year, through Communication "A" 7630, the BCRA had exempted the collection of payments made by non-residents through debit, credit, purchase, or prepaid cards issued abroad, and services related to tourism in Argentina.

In this sense, Communication “A” 7630 established that, if the collection is made through virtual accounts, and therefore the exception applies, whoever deposits the funds must demonstrate that the payment method used involved accounts opened in institutions authorized by the monetary authority, and that a tax identification number of that country was necessary to open that account.

Further, the BCRA ordered:

• Incorporating the "IBAN" code as necessary information, to identify the source of any transfer of funds linked to foreign countries.
   
• Verifying, as an additional requirement to access the foreign exchange market –when the currency reported in the SIRA or SIRASE ("Import System of the Argentine Republic" or "Import and Payments for Services Abroad System of the Argentine Republic”) declaration is from a country with which the BCRA has an active "Bilateral Currency Swap Agreement"–  that the payment is made in the same currency as that in the declaration.

This new measure is still pending implementation. For this, operators of foreign wallets will have to enter into agreements with local administrators, to enable their users to pay using QRs in stores across Argentina.