With the entry into force of Resolution 116/2021 of the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC), published on March 10 this year in the Government Gazette of the RepublicCould Cuban authorities turn the communications monopoly, ETECSA, into a new way of sending US remittances to the island.
The new provision of the BCC allows for the conversion of the balance of mobile phones into electronic money, which allows collection and payment services to be performed through a mobile wallet linking the mobile line contracted to the Transfermóvil platform.
According to the resolution, the phone’s balance, which cannot exceed 5,000 Cuban pesos and whose transactions cannot exceed 1,500, can be used to buy back companies that accept the Transfermóvil platform as a means of payment, to make wire transfers of balances between wallets and transfers to bank accounts.
While, the balance of a mobile phone can be transferred to the mobile wallet and from there to a magnetic card, from which it can be withdrawn in cash, which it can turn into a new remittance mechanism.
Following the publication of said resolution in the Official Gazette, ETECSA has 30 working days to update its new license as “non-financial entity providing support services to financial institutions in the national territory” and deliver the documentation to the BCC Secretariat.
Computer engineer Jorge Noris Martínez, interviewed by Yucabyte, confirmed that the deployment of mobile wallets could be affected by the same shortcomings of virtual stores, as they could collapse in case of high turnout due to communication problems of the payment gateway with the servers of the banks.
The main difficulty Cubans will face in receiving money transfers in this way is that mobile wallets will only receive CUP, so the dollars sent from abroad will automatically be converted into the national currency at the rate set by the authorities. Cuban, much more devalued than the casual 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 US government on the American International Services (AIS) platform, Sending mobile credit via ETECSA could be the only legal way to send money transfers from the North American country to Cuba