The National Assembly of People's Power (ANPP) ordered the government and the Central Bank of Cuba to adopt new measures to improve banking services for the population, through the , approved on July 29 and published this Friday in the .
The regulation, signed by Esteban Lazo Hernández, president of the legislative body, was unanimously approved during the Seventh Ordinary Period of Sessions of the X Legislature, held at the Palace of Conventions in Havana.
The agreement arose from a proposal made by a deputy during the Extraordinary Session in June. Following that request, the ANPP analyzed the information presented by Juana Lilia Delgado Portal, president minister of the Central Bank of Cuba, regarding the state of banking and its effects on the population.
The first mandate stipulates that the Central Bank must present to the State Council during this month "an updated report on the measures and actions being implemented to improve banking services for the population."
The second instructs the Government of the Republic to indicate to provincial and municipal administrations the necessary measures to strengthen the actions aimed at improving those services.
The third point tasks the Commission of Economic Affairs of the National Assembly with monitoring the process and assessing its outcomes during the meeting of that commission corresponding to the session period of December 2026.
The new provisions come three years after the implementation of mandatory banking, amid a deterioration of the system that has limited Cubans' access to cash and financial services.
Only 3.77% of transactions in Cuba are digital and more than half of the country's ATMs remain inoperable or empty.
The shortage of cash has even forced the transfer of banking functions to private businesses. In Guantánamo, 113 establishments are handling pension payments for over 3,000 retirees due to the banks' inability to provide this service, while in Sancti Spíritus, some businesses are applying surcharges of up to 40% for payments made via transfer.
The Central Bank announced in July a set of corrective measures that included reducing the commission charged to merchants from 1.5% to 0.8%, eliminating the limit of 5,000 Cuban pesos for cash payments, and implementing real-time crediting of transfers made within the same banking institution.
The agreement on banking was one of the texts approved during the session on July 29. On that day, the Labor Code, the Housing Law, the Agricultural and Forestry Land Law, and the Law on the Organization of the Central State Administration, among other regulations, were also adopted, which were later published in Official Gazette No. 67.
The Economic Affairs Committee will evaluate in December the results of the measures taken, which will constitute the first formal institutional assessment of compliance with the actions mandated by the ANPP.
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