Argentine bank enables cross-border payments with bitcoin

This week the Argentine bank Masventas S.A. has made available to its users a service that uses bitcoin for cross-border payments. The platform was developed thanks to the work in conjunction with the Bitex exchange house.

The service called BMV-Bitex, which uses bitcoin exchanges to enable its clients around the world to make cross-border payments with banks that work with the Bitex exchange house, is enabled since Monday, as this starup will act as an intermediary in the operations of this type. It also favors movements of funds with smaller operations, according to the information published on its web portal.

The tool will be available to perform transactions that will be effective in an average of 24 hours in some 50 countries, something innovative for traditional banking, as this becomes the first bank in Argentina to implement distributed accounting technology for international payments. Currently, an international bank identification code, known as BIC, is being used, which was devised more than four decades ago, according to Masventas in a press release.

The BMV-Bitex transfer fees will be 3% plus VAT. According to the statement, it will be possible to make payments between people who are abroad and do not have any crypto-active, because Bitex will provide a service as an alternative to Swift.

According to Eduardo del Pino, CEO of the startup Bitex, a company that has been working in the blockchain sector since 2014, this type of initiative will allow financial services to be provided to many more sectors than with traditional banking:

Bitcoin technology, although it is just beginning to have its first visible applications in the real world, has the potential to completely change the scenario of access to financial services. The impact of this type of solution provides a lot of value both to banks and clients that can access services at lower cost, with greater transparency and with a lower entry barrier, which helps to include more people financially and allows them to reach to more markets more easily.

José Humberto Dakak, a major shareholder of Banco Masventas, commented: "customers will ask banks to make international payments. Banks use Bitex as a provider. For clients this is transparent. They do not touch Bitcoin. We are your suppliers. "

In terms of adoption, many banks around the world recognize the benefits that this technology can offer, because it reduces administrative costs significantly.

But also in terms of security, since it will be possible to significantly reduce the risk of user funds being compromised, and avoid situations like the one that occurred recently with Mexico's national interbank payment system, known as SPEI, which was stolen about 20 million dollars, which caused it to reuse obsolete technology and slow down the country's banking operations.