Electronic payments continue to gain importance in Panama

Panama remains within the middle category in terms of the size of electronic transaction processing for the Latin American region.

According to Telered, which includes Key System, ACH Directo, ACH Xpress and Mis Pagos Hoy, 330 million transactions will be completed in 2023, 30 million morecompared to 300 million registered during 2022.

This figure represents a total of $100,522 million compared to $90,400 million in 2022, which also reflects an 11% increase in Telered’s core business lines.

For Oscar Castellano, director of the Latin American Association of Operators of Electronic Funds and Information Transmission Services (ATEFI), these developments foresee greater opportunities for the safe and reliable movement of transactions between actors in the region and the rest of the world.

“Panama’s steady progress in the region in the last five years with the evolution of its platforms it allows the Panamanian banking system to catch up with the rest of the region,” Castellano explained.

With respect Key system Its growth in 2023 was 7% compared to the previous year, registering more than 255 million transactions. This system is maintained by more than 2.4 million cardholders.

In addition, ACH Xpress generated 1.4 million accumulated transactions in excess of $18 million, achieving an exponential increase in volume and amount compared to 2022.

During 2023, more than 2 million users were able to make instant transfers of up to $500 between 16 financial institutions through this system.

In Panama, the population demands not only the ease of performing electronic transactions, but also their security.

Alexander Acosta, executive vice president and general manager of Telered, acknowledges that the constant and increasingly sophisticated threats of fraud and identity theft demand better security standards.

According to Acosta, these factors are key to insurance the peace of the banana population of Panama, and encourage more Panamanians to switch their cash payments to electronic transactions.