Previous Story
Julio José Prado: ‘The e-money rate will only cover operating costs’
Posted On 06 Sep 2017
Ecuadornews:
President of the Association of Private Banks (Asobanca) Julio José Prado explained the implementation of the electronic wallet service -as we call our product.- He assured that the project does not foresee profitability, but the aim would be to attract more bank clients. The Central Bank of Ecuador (ECB) will only back the accounts with physical money.
Q: What will be the role of private and public actors?
A: The Central Bank platform will close its operations and accounts. That is important because it gives us the confidence of the non-existence of a parallel currency or an inorganic emission. There will be two platforms running at the same time: the banks, managed by Banred, and also another of the cooperatives that could buy the central platform.
Q: Is it okay that there are two platforms?
A: No. We are interested in the massification of its use, and we want a world-class platform, an anchor for the digital payment ecosystem in Ecuador. We want to encourage a society that uses less cash.
Q: What will be the cost of fees in the private system?
A: Rates are regulated by the Central Bank, the Superintendency, and the Monetary Policy Board. We still do not know the operational costs. Profitability does not come into play.
Q: Then, what is the end of this project?
A: The idea is to attract more customers to the bank system. (I)
