hours before the debate on the Labor Reform, the article that allows collecting salaries in virtual wallets is in danger

In recent days there has been a strong offensive, both on the side of banks and fintech companies, on this issue, which involves the management of more than 10 million salary accounts that exists today in Argentina. On the one hand, the banks exerted both public and in whispers to get article 35 of the project presented by the Executive in December, which replaces article 124 of the current Labor Contract Law and establishes that salaries must be credited in a bank, left out of this week’s parliamentary discussion.

On the other hand, fintechs, with Marcos Galperin at the headthey came out to the intersection with data: they claim that 8 out of 10 Argentines “already chose” virtual wallets for their daily finances and that the update of the labor law at this point is in line with this user behavior.

In his X account, the founder of Mercado Libre echoed this debate: “Your salary, your decision! Why force workers to collect on an account that pays 0%?“, he retweeted a post by his colleague Osvaldo Giménez, president of the fintech giant Mercado Pago.

Behind this pull there is also a political bidding: This article in question was powered by the Minister of Modernization Federico Sturznegger. It even appeared in the drafting of the Base Law with which the Government of Javier Milei tried to reform the political agenda at the beginning of the administration.

On the other hand, Luis Caputo and the president of the Central Bank, Santiago Bausili, understand that They should not “burn bridges” with the banks, a key piece of the entire economic framework of the Government.

“We do see that there is a greater dependence on traditional banks on the economic wing of the Government. It is serious in the sense that, due to this dependence, the freedom of choice of Argentines is violated,” commented a source from the fintech sector.

The banks, after raising complaints over the weekend, opted this Tuesday for the mutism.

On the one hand, in different notes sent to the senators and even to Patricia Bullrich herself, the ABA and ABAPPRA banking chambers referred to risks “legal and systemic” that would be activated if virtual wallets are enabled to credit the salaries of Argentines.

On the other hand, non-banking apps, based on the Argentine Chamber of Fintech, They insist that they are companies that are already regulated by different organizationsthat its use is massive and that the inclusion of this article in the labor reform only adds more alternatives for Argentines to manage their money.

“100% of deposits in virtual wallets are within the banking system. The main difference with banks is that virtual wallets They do not lend their users’ money (financial intermediation)”, said Maximiliano Raimondi, CFO of Lemon. “When they say that They seek to “take care of users”, they are trying to take care of a business. “Argentines should be able to freely choose where to collect and how to manage their money,” he noted.

In this sense, Mariano Biocca, executive director of the Fintech Chamber, explained: “It would be very negative for senators to disengage from the reality of Argentines, who have already chosen virtual wallets. At one point, it is a situation similar to what was experienced before the opening of payment methods for transportation. The end of the SUBE did not occur, as many pointed out, but rather users were able to add more options when it came to moving.”

One of the premises of the banks that has penetrated deeper into the ruling party is the one that maintains that “Salaries are the raw material of loans” and that, if salaries leave the formal banking system, there would be a drop in the banks’ lending capacity. The entities estimated that this would imply a reduction in the stock of loans of between $4 billion and $6 billion.”

Against this point Biocca pointed out: “There are currently more than 25 million payment accounts with funds invested daily. This implies, with data as of October of last year, that US$4 billion were placed in common investment funds generated by wallets. All that money goes to the capital market and finances the productive model. What have banks done in recent years? Who did they lend it to?