Organizing financial flows is the main objective of banking transactions, in which conditions are created with a view to ensuring that the population and economic actors increasingly use electronic channels.
The measures established by the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) to favor banking processes in the country were announced last August in Official Gazette No. 55 Extraordinary, which stipulates, in Resolution 111/2013, banking regulations on limits for cash collections and payments in national currency, their deposit, withdrawal and holding.
According to the Resolution, the increase in the use of cash in economic and financial transactions has caused a decline in the levels of banking and financial inclusion in the country, to which are added the high costs associated with its issuance, transportation, processing. and storage, as well as the growing demand in the number of ATMs for cash withdrawal.
The hook of Banking was to simplify actions, streamline them and make them safer from the comfort of home, especially when going out to complete each payment or transaction can turn into hours of walking in the sun or waiting. With the use of Transfermóvil the extra was obtaining bonuses. There are those who do it with EnZona, with which some establishments and people have a love-hate relationship.
In a tour of several facilities and private businesses in the city of Santiago de Cuba, this team was able to confirm that the process needs greater supervision and preparation of all those involved, so that these agents understand what the norm says and understand the benefit in their case. please in the best way possible.
And here is the other side of the coin: Those who provide the service. Before the Ordering Task, more than once a sales assistant made gestures of displeasure when a customer wanted to pay by magnetic card; Why? Because getting people out of their comfort zone is a titanic task. It is up to the management structures to get to the base, talk, explain, and adapt mechanisms.
There are places where the extra cash service has been active for a long time and it is an odyssey to access it, not to mention payments by QR codes in commercial and gastronomic establishments where many times it is not even visible and almost always the clerk has a private cell phone that you do not have, if you do not want, to use for work.
In addition, the staff must be qualified so that the most prepared person takes on the task because they will not always receive a client who is skilled in the matter.
The most difficult thing is to change the mentality. Those who only occasionally use online payments do not see the need to assume them as a regular means, therefore, benefits and incentives should be the letter of introduction.
We cannot point out this process as the zero note but rather repeat and repeat, with the more than five arguments that there are, that the aim is for the circulating cash to be in the hands of those who depend on the use of paper to manage their finances. Therefore, the other part of the population with the skills and attitudes for electronic management will also benefit from faster cashless transactions through.
The technological infrastructure will also have to be given not only the importance that the State gives it, but also the solution dates and the ways. You cannot live online with everyday messages like “only
Some detractors of Banking use as their first reason that, right now, it is a measure to eliminate a symptom and not the solution to the disease (lack of currency and inflation). It is still true, but its benefits cannot be denied.
At the time, were there those who did not understand the nationalization of banks, the penalization of the dollar, or its decriminalization, the appearance of the CUC, the accounts in MLC? and right there is the crux of the matter: The resilience of this country.
Banking now seems like a shortcut, but it is the path to development and it is worth betting on it. The keys, many of them, have to go down to the neighborhood domino table, so that they are understood by everyone. It is not a six-month process, nor a three-month extension that must also include the strategy to solve the primary problem. Its emerging application cannot lead to patching foreseeable issues in one year.
The technological infrastructure and technical capacity must be specified, work on solving the underlying problems and provide all the necessary information. Only in this way will Banking have the success that Cuba demands.
