Banking strike at the BCRA: what will happen to ATMs, transfers and payments next Monday, April 27

What is the reason for the strike and why would it not impact the rest of the banks? The protest arose from the closure, last month, of 12 “treasuries” that operated in different parts of the country, a “100% technical” measure, according to what they said.

The treasuries are headquarters of the monetary organization that are in charge of receiving flights with money from Buenos Aires and manage the physical circulation of banknotes towards the banks. Due to the drop in the use of cash, the BCRA decided that it no longer made sense to keep some of them open due to geographical and operational reasons (size of the vaults, number of people, flow of shipments).

The treasuries were those of Paraná, San Juan, Bahía Blanca, Salta, Río Gallegos, Río IV, La Rioja, Comodoro Rivadavia, Río Grande, La Pampa, Misiones and Formosa. A total of 32 people worked there, whom, according to the BCRA, They will be offered to relocate them to the treasury closest to their province or to the BCRA headquarters in the City of Buenos Aires.

The strike will occur in 21 treasures BCRA regional offices. But many of them only receive less than one flight per month.

“Just because they don’t work for a day doesn’t impact them in the slightest. The banks will take the forecasts, how about a long weekend“, indicated official sources. “Everything is going to work perfectly, people don’t have to worry,” they added.

It is expected that digital services, home banking, virtual wallets and electronic payments will continue to function normally.

To justify the closure of the treasuries, the BCRA explains that the currency historically represented 6% of GDP and is currently only 2%. This decrease is mainly due to the growth of electronic means of payment. As they explained, the cash that circulates through the regional treasuries represents only 0.1%