ARGENTINA Law and Practice Contributed by: Santiago J. Mora, Nicolas Garfunkel, Milagros Caneda and May Steward, GPG Advisory Partners
Further, under Law No 27,739, PNFCs were included as reporting subjects. Therefore, in addition to the obligations that may apply to them under the scope of the BCRA, their activity is now supervised by the UIF (as was the case with financial institutions). 4.2 Underwriting Processes Fintech companies operating in the online credit market rely on various digital onboarding systems to identify and link with clients remotely, using digital documents and electronic signatures. However, these systems vary in terms of their security measures. To reinforce customer identification and credit risk prediction, these companies are increasingly utilising the opportunity to collect, process and cross-check customer information. Recently, the BCRA and the UIF have also authorised banks to introduce a fully digital onboarding experi - ence, which has led to the emergence of 100% digital financial entities. Also, under Law No 27,739, PNFCs were included as reporting subjects, and must comply with a series of additional obligations in terms of identifying and moni - toring their clients. Within the framework of the new Open Finance reg - ulations (see 1.1 Evolution of the Fintech Market ), the BCRA seeks to strengthen onboarding and credit scoring by accessing more information on borrowers, increasing the granting of credit, and improving col - lection conditions. 4.3 Sources of Funds for Fiat Currency Loans See 4.1 Differences in the Business or Regulation of Fiat Currency Loans Provided to Different Entities and 4.4 Syndication of Fiat Currency Loans . 4.4 Syndication of Fiat Currency Loans Although they are not a syndication of loans in the tra - ditional sense, crowdlending platforms that currently operate in the local market (where loans are funded by several investors through the platform) could be regarded as a case of syndication of loans.
This activity is subject to the PSCPP regime men - tioned in 2.2 Regulatory Regime , which establishes the need to register and report to the BCRA, as well as a series of information duties addressed to the plat - form’s clients, and certain obligations and conditions applicable to its operation, including the obligation to segregate the funds of its clients. Under certain condi - tions, PSCPPs may provide credit analysis, adminis - tration and collection management services. 5. Payment Processors 5.1 Payment Processors’ Use of Payment Rails Payment processors can use existing payment rails or create and implement new payment rails. In January 2020, the BCRA imposed the PSPCP regime mentioned in 2.2 Regulatory Regime , which estab - lishes the need to register and report to the BCRA, as well as a series of information duties addressed to the processor’s clients, and certain obligations and conditions applicable to its operation, including the obligation to segregate the funds of its clients and the obligation to refund client funds immediately upon request. During 2020 and 2021, the BCRA promoted interoper - ability among different PSPCPs and among PSPCPs and banks. For this purpose, it created the so-called Uniform Virtual Code (CVU) to identify virtual accounts provided by PSPCPs and introduced standards for payments through rapid-response codes (QR codes) to make it possible for customers of one payment sys - tem (a banking account or a virtual account provided by a PSPCP) to execute payments in shops added in a different payment system. At the very beginning, this was only available for payments with an account balance. In 2022, the BCRA established a regulatory framework for “payment initiation service providers” ( proveedores de servicios de iniciación de pagos or PSIs), requiring their registration, among other things. Likewise, the BCRA regulated “pull” transfers, empowering PSIs and PSPCPs to initiate payments. Technical specifi - cations were finalised during 2023.
21 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook