Information Regime on Transparency

Through Communication “A” 4184, issued on August 9, 2004, the Central Bank of the ArgentineRepublic (“BCRA”) introduced a new requirement to the Monthly Accounting Information Regime on Transparency concerning information related, among other data, to costs, rates, and requirements of the following financial products and services offered to the market by financial entities:

The expiry date for delivery of information under the new Regime falls on the fifth business day of the following month.

The information is available for the public in the web site of the BCRA, www.bcra.gov.ar, designed so as to facilitate the search of information. The information will be shown in a way that a direct comparison of the costs of one product between the different entities of the system can be made.

Financial entities should bring the information up to date monthly. The published information will be of the last day of the month prior to the search and the new information will be available as from the sixth banking day of the following month.

According to the BCRA, the purpose of the new Information Regime on Transparency is to improve the information available to end-users of the system, increase competition between financial entities and improve the relation between banks and their clients, with the purpose of intensifying the present process of financial normalisation.