New foreign exchange restrictions affecting the FinTech industry

On October 31, 2019, the Argentine Central Bank (the “BCRA”, after its Spanish acronym) issued Communique “A” 6823 (the “Communique”), which imposes the obligation to obtain the BCRA’s prior approval to access the foreign exchange market to perform payments abroad through credit, debit or prepaid cards on financial institutions and other local card issuers issued in Argentina, as of November 1, 2019.

The Communique specifies that such obligation will apply to payments originated directly or indirectly through international payment networks, in the following operations:

a) participation in games of chance and bets of different types and/or,

b) fund transfers to accounts with Payment Service Providers and/or,

c) fund transfers to investment accounts with investment managers located abroad and/or,

d) foreign exchange operations abroad and/or,

e) acquisition of cryptoassets in their different modalities.

The reference to accounts with payment service providers, prepaid cards and cryptoassets has a direct impact on the FinTech industry. Furthermore, this is the first time that the BCRA refers to cryptoassets in its regulations.

This regulation also establishes that the maximum amount per transaction that financial institutions and other local credit card issuers may grant as a cash advance to cardholders abroad is USD 50.