After several weeks without progress, the dollar has finally left for foreigners, even if for now cash is only made on Mastercard. With this mechanism, holders of credit and debit cards issued outside Argentina They access an exchange rate similar to that of the MEP dollar, today at 322 dollars.
The Central Bank has promoted this system to ensure that foreigners stop using the blue dollar to pay their expenses in the country. The reason is simple: it is cheaper for foreigners to come with tickets and sell them in informal dollars – today at $315 – than to pay with their cards and get an exchange rate of $179.
This is a headache for the Central Bank, because it slows down the entry of foreign currency into the formal circuit. But at the same time keeps the offer in the informal segment oiled, amidst the systematic shortage of foreign currency plaguing Argentina.
It is estimated that some $2.5 billion annually, while in the official market tourists liquidate only about 350 million dollars. With this system, the goal is to bring the $30 million a month to somewhere close to $100 million.
The control panel has tried various recipes to solve this problem without success so far. First, he wanted foreigners passing through the country to open a bi-currency account in a local bank to access a price similar to the MEP. Not a single account has been opened through this system, also due to the disinterest of the banks in promoting an operation that they considered unfeasible.
Months later, Miguel Pesce and his team had tourists go to an exchange house and hand in their dollar bills at the MEP exchange. The idea that foreigners wandered around the city of Buenos Aires with a bag full of pesos also didn’t pan out.
Now they are going for this new mechanism which after several delays has already started in Mastercard, while in VISA and American Express it is still pending.
temporary solution
“Our temporary solution started working from December 6th for transactions processed from Friday December 2nd”, said Federico Cofman, Mastercard Country Manager for Argentina and Uruguay.
“Because of this temporary solutionwhich allowed us to meet the implementation expectations, we decided to keep the official exchange rate in our systems and make a refund for the exchange difference to all those Credit Mastercard, Debit Mastercard and Prepaid Mastercard cards issued abroad that make payments in our country”, explained Cofman.
“The value we use to calculate this refund is an alternative exchange rate which we receive daily from the Chamber of Credit Cards, ATACYC. It is a more competitive exchange rate for foreigners, close to the MEPknown as the equity dollar,” he said.
The MEP dollar is trading today at $322even if last week came to touch the $332.
Mastercard’s is a “temporary solution” because the company is working on “a superior alternative with improvements in terms of implementation and that works as a definitive solution. This requires more development time,” they reported.
Yesterday Cofman met Miguel Pesce, president of the Central Bank, accompanied by Gonzalo Plecity, director of Public Policies of Mastercard for the Southern Cone.
The executives inform him that in the first week since Mastercard began to grant the benefit of the refund of the exchange difference deals grew 25% in amount and 28% in transaction volume.
What about the other card issuers who haven’t yet implemented this differential exchange rate? “We’ve been ready for weeks. There are other players in the ecosystem who haven’t done it yet“, they replied in Visa to explain why the system is not yet operational.
“We are working on the implementation, adaptation of systems and processes, which it will take some time“, they explained in turn from American Express.
It is currently unclear when the foreign dollar will be launched for these traders.
AQ
Source: Clarin
