BCRA Plans New Tools to Expand and Lower Credit Costs

Argentina’s central bank is working on a series of tools to expand private sector credit and lower interest rates, addressing historically high delinquency rates and funding costs, lanacion.com.ar reported. The Banco Central de la República Argentina (BCRA) is developing the initiatives after private loans stalled this year amid historically high household default rates.

Payroll Discount Codes for Public and Private Workers

The central bank is advancing a payroll discount code system designed to deduct loan installments directly from a debtor’s earnings. Argentina operates two distinct schemes for this mechanism, separating public employees from private sector workers.

For public sector employees, the BCRA collaborated with the Ministry of Deregulation to modify the regulating decree. The implementation stage aims to deepen the tool’s usage by removing rate caps, allowing the transfer of codes to eligible entities, and providing greater security for assigned portfolios and funding depth.

Private sector workers will see the tool integrated through the Labor Modernization Law, which remains in the design and implementation phase. Coelsa will centralize the affected payment flows, allowing employees to manage fund assignments without imposing administrative burdens on employers. Pedro Inchauspe, director at the central bank, pointed to Brazil and Uruguay as reference models where similar mechanisms enjoy higher development.

Cuando existe una herramienta que permite cobrar de manera más segura y previsible, no solo baja la tasa de interés, sino que también se vuelve más estable en el tiempo y aumenta el volumen de crédito.

Pedro Inchauspe

Credit Card Vouchers for Merchant Liquidity

The second initiative involves creating negotiable and transferable card vouchers. This financial instrument lets merchants transform credit card sales into tradeable assets possessing executive title status and public offering eligibility for open mutual funds.

The mechanism builds on existing everyday transactions where issuing banks have already approved credit lines for consumers. Once a purchase is authorized, the merchant holds a commitment from the bank to receive the funds. Inchauspe estimated that over 90 percent of the risk tied to those flows equates to a triple-A risk profile.

The central bank is deciding whether to advance the design phase after studying international models, including Brazil. The instrument aims to give merchants access to financing rates equivalent to commercial paper.

Open Finance Implementation Deadlines

The third axis focuses on developing an open finance framework that lets users share financial data across institutions with explicit consent. The BCRA expects initial testing to begin before the end of the year, with full operations targeted for 2027.

The opening use case links with data from the Agencia de Recaudación y Control Aduanero (ARCA), combining open finance and open data principles. A dedicated working group with ARCA is addressing authentication and consent protocols, planning mandatory participation for key financial players while keeping participation voluntary for the rest of the ecosystem.

Reino Unido fue el primer país del mundo en implementar esto, y diez años después arrancamos nosotros, por lo que tenemos la ventaja de capitalizar las enseñanzas de esta década. Brasil también está muy avanzado. Son muy generosos con nosotros en compartirnos sus mejores prácticas.

Pedro Inchauspe