Amid the increase in transportation, pressure is growing from the financial sector to “open up” the SUBE

Faced with the increase in transport and faced with the difficulties of registering and loading the SUBE card, the financial sector’s request to “open” the system and Require transportation credentials to be funded with multiple means of payment.

Complaints among users regarding difficulty registering cards UP by March 31st, the deadline to maintain the current tariff value and not see the new increases applied starting from April. In recent days, the decision of Nación Servicios, owner of control of SUBE, to keep the negative balance of the card in -$480despite recent increases in buses and trains, in the metropolitan area.

The government clarified on Friday that after resolving the technical issues increase the maximum load amount to $9,900they work to expand the negative balance.

All this revives a demand from the financial sector: “open the SUBE”, which is currently based on a closed system controlled by Nación Servicios. Months ago the banks asked the previous Government expand access points to this system, to allow you to pay for freight from any digital wallet or banking app.

“As a medium-term goal we should aim for travel by bus, subway or train can be paid with all payment methods contactless available and other modes that may appear. In other words, the option of pay for public transport with credit, debit or prepaid cards; NFC technology (near field communication); options available today for payments in businesses”, underlined last June in a technical note from ADEBA, the chamber that brings together national capital banks.

Now the request has gained another weight and so it is Pierpaolo Barbierithe founder of the fintech Ualá, who is also part of ADEBA thanks to the banking license that his company has for Uilo, which leads the way on social networks and takes advantage of his high profile on his table.

“Open SUBE! Less state monopoly with SA language hidden in a public bank. More competition. More transparency. Fewer queues.Just like in Rio. New York. Rome. London. Hong Kong. Mexico. Milan. And many other cities”, writes Barbieri. In the coming weeks, the trans-Andean capital, Santiago de Chile, will be added to this list.

From the financial sector they say it Talks are ongoing with the government to allow this system to be opened and that, from a technical point of view, “it is not difficult”. However, for now, there appear to be rather political obstacles to the realization of this undertaking.

The management of SUBE depended, in addition to the administrative management of Nación Servicios, on the former Ministry of Transport. Today, After the demotion of this Ministry to a secretariat, there is no director designated to handle this task.. “There is no organizational chart,” portfolio sources told this newspaper. Meanwhile, the current Minister of Transport, Franco Mogetta, was in the Casa Rosada’s sights after the clash between Javier Milei and the governors over the failure of the Omnibus law.

According to the latest data from the Central Bank, collected in its Retail Payments Report, Balances in the SUBE last December amounted to $19.9 billion.