With the entry into force of Resolution 116/2021 of the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC), published on March 10 this year in the Official Gazette of the RepublicThe Cuban authorities could turn the communications monopoly, ETECSA, into a new way of sending US remittances to the island.
The new provision of the BCC authorizes the transformation of the balance of mobile phones into electronic money, with which collection and payment services can be performed through a mobile wallet that associates the contracted mobile line with the Transfermóvil platform.
According to the Resolution, the balance of the phone, which can not exceed 5,000 Cuban pesos, and whose transactions are not allowed to exceed 1,500, can be used to buy in companies that accept the Transfermóvil platform as a means of payment, to make balance transfers between wallets and transfers to bank accounts.
While, the balance of a mobile phone could be transferred to the mobile wallet and from there to a magnetic card, from which it could be withdrawn in cash, which can turn it into a new remittance mechanism.
Following the publication of that resolution in the Official Gazette, ETECSA has 30 working days to adapt its new license as a “non-financial entity providing assistance services to financial institutions in the national territory” and to deliver the documentation to the BCC Secretariat.
Computer engineer Jorge Noris Martínez, interviewed by Yucabyte, said that the implementation of mobile wallets may be affected by the same shortcomings of online stores, as in cases of high presence could collapse due to problems communicating the payment gateway with banks’ servers.
The biggest difficulty Cubans will face when receiving such remittances is that mobile wallets receive only CUPs, so that dollars sent from abroad would be automatically converted into national currency at the rate set by the authorities. informal market.
Following the suspension of the services of the American company Western Union with the Island at the end of November last year and due to the sanctions of the United States government towards the American International Services (AIS) platform, sending mobile loans through ETECSA could be the only legal way to send remittances from the North American country to Cuba.