For some time, for most Argentines leaving money sitting is not an option. Virtual wallets have grasped the need to generate extra interest on account balances and increasingly offer the possibility of remunerating these funds on a daily basis.
According to data from the Central Bank, there are already 141 wallets that allow you to generate some type of return on account balances. Inflation causes the sums invested in this type of applications to grow from month to month: in January, the pesos captured from electronic wallets and invested in FCI They exceeded one billion pesos.
The data comes from the latest Retail Payments Report published by the Central Bank and reveals the consumption and payment habits of Argentines.
“In December, 16.7 million payment accounts were registered with a total balance of $341 billion, while balances invested in FCI money reached $1.08 trillion,” the publication notes. Therefore, payment account balances and funds which in turn are invested in the accounts money money market, They already represent 3.69% of all private sector deposits.
Virtual portfolio returns were affected by rate cut which the Central Bank applied in December. Currently the one that pays best is Naranja X which, through a paid account, offers annual returns of 92%.
However, 82% of portfolio balances invested in mutual funds belong to users of Payments market. The app founded by Marcos Galperín also absorbs the largest share of the peso pie deposited in payment accounts, at 73%. The Prex digital wallet follows at a great distance, accounting for 13% of balances.
The transfer of pesos from bank accounts, which for the most part do not offer the possibility of generating daily interest and being able to access them in liquid form, to virtual wallets is cause of conflict between traditional financial entities and fintechs.
According to BCRA data, nearly 67% of all immediate transfers in the financial system had a uniform virtual key (CVU) as their source or destination account, associated with non-bank virtual wallets. In the last year the number of transfers has grown by 117%.
Meanwhile, transfer requests (Central Bank pull calls) fell 13.7% in December compared to what was recorded the previous month.
The Central Bank report shows a slight decline in the use of cash and increase in digital payments. For example, the number of ATM withdrawals decreased by 1.8% compared to what was recorded a year ago. Meanwhile, the amounts of these draws showed a year-on-year decline of more than 45% in real terms.
In the same period, payments with bank transfers via the Central Bank’s interoperable QR grew by 46.7%. They currently represent 72.8% of payments with immediate transfers.
Secondly, the number of purchases paid with debit cards, which has presented a positive variation of more than 36% in the last year. The credit card, however, has remained the preferred means of payment and has recorded growth of over 19% in the last year.
Source: Clarin
