Argentina’s Central Bank eliminated the six-month parking period for foreign investors in local financial assets, meaning they will no longer have to wait to repatriate their investments.

The change was made through Communication “A” 8257, which becomes effective this Friday, June 13. The Central Bank will offer a bond sold in U.S. dollars on Friday.

The monetary authority also eliminated the so-called “crossed restriction” for non-resident investors, which forbade those who traded in the blue chip swap financial market from going to the official exchange market (the MLC) for 90 days.

Two sources from the banking sector, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, told the Herald that they are starting to receive inquiries from foreign investment funds following the announcement. They argued that the Central Bank assessed the risk of a currency run against the peso and was “not worried” about it. 

A source from the Central Bank told the Herald that the cross-restriction aimed to avoid investors with stock from using both the official exchange market and the blue-chip swap market. However, the elimination only applies to non-resident investors who have no trapped stock in dividends or debt.

The elimination of the parking period raised some eyebrows, as it reminded some analysts of an incident that took place in 2018 when Federico Sturzengger, the current Deregulation Minister, was the head of the Central Bank. The so-called “electoral trade” was allowed and large volumes of “hot money” dollars (known locally as golondrina or “swallow” capital) entered Argentina, only to exit shortly after then-President Mauricio Macri lost the election.

In a single day, the monetary authority was forced to sell more than 1 billion dollars of its reserves to contain the soaring exchange rate.

“It’s inexplicable to eliminate the 6-month minimum holding period for foreign financial capital. We’ve learned nothing,” economist Juan Manuel Telechea commented on X.