After the ban imposed on banks last year, the Central Bank prohibited payment service providers from carrying out, and facilitate to their clients, transactions with digital assets.
On May 4, 2023, the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA) issued Communique "A" 7759 which sets forth that "payment service providers that offer payment accounts (PSPCP) shall not carry out or facilitate to their clients the execution of transactions with digital assets -including cryptoassets and those whose yields are determined based on the variations that they register- that are not authorized by a competent national authority or by the BCRA". With this provision, the BCRA extends to PSPCPs the prohibition imposed on financial institutions established by Communique "A" 7506 in May last year.
Through a press release published minutes before on its website, the BCRA anticipated the measure and clarified that the regulation prevents PSPCPs from carrying out this type of transactions by themselves and offer to initiate them from their apps or websites.
Even though the following interpretation was not expressly included in the regulation, the BCRA clarified in the press release that "offering or facilitating means the availability of automated purchase buttons for the user". Following, the BCRA stated that "interested persons must carry out the transactions on their own".
As for the grounds for the measure, the BCRA outlined that it "seeks to mitigate the risks that transactions with these assets could generate for the users of financial services and the national payment system".
Finally, in the press release the BCRA referred once again to the alert published in May 2021 together with the Argentine Securities and Exchange Commission
This insight is a brief comment on legal news in Argentina; it does not purport to be an exhaustive analysis or to provide legal advice.