Argentines can no longer buy U.S. dollars in the official wholesale market through e-wallets after the Central Bank issued a statement on Tuesday saying the fintech firms had never been authorized to sell the greenback in the first place. 

The authorities claim this does not constitute a new restriction on accessing foreign currency — but the statement came more than two months after major digital wallets began advertising the service to users, at a time when the government is trying to stem a pre-electoral run on the peso, prompting scorn from analysts.

“They asked us to shut it down,” Ariel Sbdar, chief executive of the financial platform Cocos Capital, posted on X, after a user noted that they could not access the foreign exchange market. 

Leading e-wallet Mercado Pago also stopped offering the service. While the app continues to display an exchange rate, the options to buy and sell dollars in the official market are grayed out.

Users can still buy dollars via the financial MEP market (obtained by purchasing a sovereign bond or stocks in pesos, then selling them for dollars). However, last week the government banned people who had bought dollars on the official market in the past 90 days from doing MEP dollar operations, and vice versa. That prohibition was intended to stop individuals from buying dollars on the official market and then selling them on the financial dollar market at a higher price.

According to the Central Bank president, Santiago Bausili, e-wallets were never authorized to sell dollars on the official market, and the move simply seeks to close a loophole.

“No measures were taken today,” Bausili said in an interview with the A24 TV channel. “Nothing changes, beyond the commotion on social media.”

The monetary authority made the decision while the government is depleting international reserves through the Treasury to prop up the peso, amid increased dollar purchases.

Banks, exchange houses, and e-wallets began to sell foreign currency freely in April, after the government lifted restrictions on individuals buying the greenback, which was known as “cepo” (clamp in Spanish).

The e-wallets did not access the foreign exchange market directly, but through a bank that acts as an intermediary, the Banco Industrial (BIND). “Outsourcing operations is not permitted,” Tuesday’s Central Bank communiqué read.

A Central Bank source said the authority had simply clarified the issue and brought those who were not complying into line.

The Herald contacted spokespeople for Mercado Pago and BIND, who declined to comment.

Economist Christian Buteler noted that Mercado Pago had been advertising access to the official foreign currency market since July 28. 

“It’s not credible to say that a loophole in the regulations was being taken advantage of, and that the Central Bank just happens to be correcting it now, when there’s a run on the currency,” he wrote on X.

“No one can believe that the Central Bank didn’t know that the wallets were selling official dollars,” he said, adding that the reason for the new restrictions was that 30% of dollar purchases in recent months were made through e-wallets.

“They’re trying to close this faucet,” he wrote.