The Municipality of Guatemala is inviting bids for the procurement of payment processing services via credit card.
The purpose of the tender is to optimize revenue management through electronic payment processing services, to facilitate transactions for users and neighbors with the Municipality of Guatemala and their companies.by using information and communication technologies that are both streamlined and secure.
From May 30, the technical rules on credit cards issued by the non-banking commercial sector will be in effect in El Salvador.
A statement from the Ministry of Economy reads:
The Minister of Economy, Armando Flores signed for publication in the Official Journal, this May 29, standards for credit cards, which allow development of the application of the provisions of the Law on Credit Cards, in a more effective and efficient form, favoring cardholders from the nonbank trade sector.
Between January and March 2012 599.000 credit cards were issued in Panama, an increase of 8.3% compared to the same period in 2011.
Data from the Panamanian Credit Association (APC in Spanish), also indicated that the balance on the total number active credit cards was $1.081 million, 11% more than on the same date in 2011 when it was $973 million.
A passive base rate in excess of 12% would be problematic, affecting the behavior of borrowers and is likely to cause an increase in defaults.
The Passive Base Rate (PBR) reached 10% on May 9, a level not seen since October 2009. The banks set their interest rate according to the PBR and charge an additional margin. It is estimated that there are 400,000 public bank transactions related to this indicator, reported Elfinancierocr.com.
The National Electronic Payments System will assign a customer account number to each cardholder for making interbank payments and collections.
This possibility will be effective from July 1st, when the National Electronic Payments System (SINPE) will enable the service. With the assignment of a customer account number (‘cuenta cliente’ or CC in Spanish) to credit cards, customers may make payments and collection transactions using the interbank payment instrument.
The company has been under investigation for issuing customers a "financial card" that allowed them to deposit money by electronic means.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) through the Directorate of Financial Enterprises, has ordered the closure of the finance company Pronto Cash after having cancelled its operating permit. The agency also fined the company $10,000 on 1st April.
Visa Payments and Transfers is a system that allows transferring funds or making payments from cell phones using debit or credit cards.
Visa Inc. has developed a technology for making payments and debit card and credit transactions from phones that will be used in Guatemala for the first time in Latin America.
This is the platform Visa Payments and Transfers, through which Visa customers can make transfers from their cell phones with credit or debit cards in order to make payments, send funds to other users and to receive international remittances, said Roberto Gonzalez, director of business development for Visa Latin America and the Caribbean to elPeriodico.com.gt.
The Financial company Pronto Cash has issued a MasterCard card that operates similarly to a debit card, allowing payments to be made electronically, without stating its origin.
An article by Rafael Berrocal in Panamaamerica.com.pa reviews the payment system used by Pronto Cash, noting that "the collection of deposits is reserved for formal cooperative banks, and any other system is considered illegal, according to the financial regulators the MICI and the Superintendency of Banks."
Proposals are being put forward in the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador to limit interest rates on credit cards via a usury law.
Representantives from the official FMLN party and the Gana party have dusted off the Credit Card System Law, proposing to amend Article 19 in order to lower interest rates, which according to them, remain very high for users, reported ElSalvador.com.
Citibank, with $242 million; BAC International Bank, with $176.5 million; HSBC Bank, with $134 million and Banco General, with $133 million, are the banks that have the highest loan amounts.
The annual amounts of loans taken out using credit cards in Panama last November amounted to $867.9 million, far surpassing the $61.1 million figure for the same period in 2010.
In the past four years credit card issuance has reduced by 42.4%.
Credit restrictions applied by banks is one of the reasons for the reduction. According to Juan Carlos Arguello, president of the Association of Private Banks of Nicaragua (Asobanp), the downward trend will be maintained.
"According to the Central Bank of Nicaragua (BCN), until 2008 the banking system showed an expansion of plastic money, having more than 300,000 customers.
The Superintendency of Competition has presented a study on conditions of competition in the sector of credit and debit cards.
In El Salvador, credit and debit cards are becoming increasingly important as a means of payment, and in the case of credit have become one of the largest sources of consumer loans. The sector's growth has been such that its proper functioning has become systemically important.
The Financial Committee of the Legislative Assembly in El Salvador has began to study a bill which will apply to "all financing operations related to the procurement of goods and services."
The item will be incorporated into the usury bill, that will be analyzed in Congress .
If the law is passed, interest charged by financial institutions for loans made through credit cards will be regulated by law.
New technologies will be the basis for changes affecting users of financial services in the future.
Accessing your account from Facebook and financing being offered at the time you buy a product are some of the innovations that we could be seeing in the coming years in the banking industry.
This is one of the conclusions from research conducted by experts in technology and financial services applications, which include, among other things, the ability to soon be able to sign agreements using just a smartphone.
Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes commented over the decree approved by 853 representatives which amends the Law on the Credit Card System.
A press release from the Presidency of the Republic of El Salvador reads:
The observations are essentially based on three considerations:
1. The Presidency shares the spirit of the legislators in their initiative to limit interest rates, in many cases charged by loan sharks, in the financial system that applies to credit card users and which has as its principal the intention to protect consumers.