A report published on Thursday in the Granma newspaper adds that this way, banking regulations on limits for cash withdrawals and payments in the domestic currency are approved, with the clear aim of promoting the use of electronic mechanisms for those transactions.
The article explains that given the deterioration of the ATM network nationwide, one of the actions establishes that these pieces of equipment will only dispense money to natural individuals with cards associated with salaries, savings accounts, pensions and other personal assets.
The Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) approved a set of new measures to favor banking processes, whose principle is to maintain equality for all the actors in the national economy and, as the main goal, to reorder banking flows.
For this reason, these regulations establish limits for cash withdrawals and payments in the domestic currency, their deposits, extraction and possession.
According to the changes, the increase in the use of cash in economic and financial transactions has caused a decline in the levels of banking and financial inclusion in the country.
Add to this the high costs associated with the issuance, transportation, processing, and storage of cash, as well as the growing demand in the number of ATMs to extract cash.
Hence, authorities stipulate to increase the use of financial transactions through electronic payment channels, take actions that ensure their implementation and make withdrawal and payment processes viable, boosting the finances of all economic actors and their relationship with the population.
Granma highlights that state companies, higher management organizations, budgeted units, non-agricultural cooperatives, agricultural cooperatives, agricultural producers, individual farmers, commercial fishermen, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, and local development projects are subjected to the Resolution.
They also include self-employed workers, artists and creators, together with the modalities of foreign investment and the forms created under the Law of Associations.
Likewise, they are applicable to natural or legal individuals not included in the above list, if they carry out legally authorized commercial and service activities.
BCC Vice President Alberto Quiñones recalled that this process is based on the computerization of operations done by the banking system within its course of technological modernization and is determined, in addition, by the experiences in the use of the electronic channels.
For this reason, he added, these provisions will speed up the banking process, including all withdrawal and payment relationships among economic actors which are based on banking methods and must be based on electronic transactions.
The general director of Operations and Payment Systems of the BCC, Julio Pérez, pointed out that more than 15 million debit cards have been issued is Cuba and 200 million banking transactions were processed using electronic means last year, demonstrating the fidelity of this mechanism.
He explained that a maximum limit of 5,000 Cuban pesos (one dollar equals 120 Cuban pesos, according to BCC rates) is established per operation for cash withdrawals and payments, as a result of a contractual relationship between those who are subjected to this Resolution, as well as for the increase in petty cash for minor payments.
Pérez added that the cash withdrawals in the bank branches to pay salaries, subsidies and other benefits will be guaranteed under the principle of relationship between the institution and the bank.
Withdrawal and payment operations that exceed 5,000 Cuban pesos are now done through payment instruments and credit instruments other than cash, and their execution through electronic channels is prioritized.
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