Electronic money generates concerns

In September expires the deadline for the Central Bank of Ecuador (BCE for its Spanish acronym ) to publish the rules and operating manual that explains the use of electronic money. In recent days there have been some doubts about the new payment method , which the BC clarifies that will be voluntary .

The government’s objective is that e-wallets are generalized and reach $ 150 million a day in transactions. 

Among the benefits are: the security that implies not carrying physical money in cases of robbery and lower transaction costs than the private banking system, according to clarifications of the BCE. 

The citizen deposits the cash in the BCE system through a “transaction center” that can be “shops, pharmacies, supermarkets, credit unions, branches of the financial system, etc,”  according to the public institution. Later, people can use it for payments by sending a text message to the BCE.

Ivan Rivadeneyra, Director of the Center for Economic Research of Espol, explains that this system has worked well in African countries, where access to cash is difficult or dangerous.

In recent days, it has emerged comments to the BCE about issuance of currency in a dollarized system, which is not allowed. 

The BCE responded to this by saying : “In Ecuador it will only be delivered electronic money in exchange of U.S. dollars. There is no creation of a different currency than the U.S. dollar, but an electronic monetary kind to make payments, transfers and money orders more efficiently with the dollars that exist in the economy”.