Cubans will not be able to withdraw dollars from their bank accounts in CUC (neither of the MLC accounts) nor can we make new deposits in convertible pesos.
So I say yesterday in the Round table the Minister President of the Central Bank of Cuba, Marta Wilson González, on the eve of the disappearance of the CUC from January 1, 2021.
Savers will be able to convert the CUCs they have in the bank into dollars or euros, but knowing that we will not be able to withdraw this money because they are deposits “they will not have liquidity backing”.
The Cuban bank is limited to giving you a “certificate of deposits.” In this account (in dollars or euros) you can not deposit or withdraw money (euros or dollars) or make transfers to other banking products in divisions.
These conditions will be modified “when the country’s conditions allow the availability of foreign currency to support these certificates,” said Resolution 177/2020 published on December 10 in the Official Gazette of Cuba.
According to Cuban economist Elías Amor, in a way it is a corralito like the one made by Fernando de la Rúa in Argentina in 2002 “because it blocks a deposit until there is foreign exchange and that loses value due to inflation,” he said in a statement to CiberCuba.
The tsar of economic reforms in Cuba, Marino Murillo, was meridianally clear about: “That money in MLC can be collected in a term that cannot be defined at this time.”
The person in charge of implementing the Guidelines of the Communist Party in the Cuban economy added, in addition, that the money saved in dollars in the banks, the clients yes could make extractions in Cuban pesos to the exchange 1×24.
In case it is not clear, from the accounts in MLC and CUC will not be able to withdraw dollars for the tellers: only Cuban pesos.
Still, Granma he dares to state that “MLC (dollar) accounts remain operating in the same way, without any change.”
What awaits us with the Sorting Task?
Minister Wilson González explained the rules that will govern the way in which the banking system will operate in the six months that will supposedly last what the Government has called the Task Ordinance, as established by Resolution 177/2020 published in the Gazette Official of Cuba.
The first of these is the 1×24 change (from dollars to Cuban pesos) and the collection of the CUC (the currency that is disappearing) and which is still in circulation in Cuba, as announced by Governor Miguel Díaz Canel on 10 December.
In principle, the Government ensures that it will be possible to continue paying in CUC in your CIMEX and Caribbean trends, but the change will be received in Cuban pesos.
The Cadecas, meanwhile, will continue to collect CUC until June.
From the Government warned that your MLC trends will not open on December 31st because electronic payments will be suspended on 30 and 31 December (from 18:00 on 30/12/2020)
In this sense, on January 1st do not open your days either because they are supposed to be adapting to the currency exchange. They will have a margin of ten days. To be understood, the commercial premises operating in CUC may remain closed in the first week of January (between January 1 and 10, 2021).
People who have accounts in CUC, the Government gives them the option of not going to queue at the bank to withdraw deposits, but wait six months for them to automatically change the money from CUC to CUP (at 1×24) with a bonus between 1.5 and 3.5% for those who do not go to the entities to save their deposits.
Marino Murillo insists on encouraging savers not to save their money, in contradiction with the recommendation of the Cuban economist Elías Amor who warns that the devaluation will be galloping and will affect deposits.
Under no circumstances will savers be able to withdraw from the CUC from their accounts. Only Cuban pesos will go out at ATMs and windows. The exchange rate of the CUP with respect to other currencies will be published daily in the Central Bank of Cuba, as stated in Resolution 177/2020.
In this sense, on January 1, the accounts where the workers receive the salaries paid by the state will also become Cuban pesos. It will automatically convert to CUP according to the 1×24 government exchange rate.
The accounts of doctors who are working abroad, forced to share their salaries with the government and unable to play a good part until they return to Cuba, will maintain their 30% drop in their savings, but all the money from their accounts will be converted to Cuban pesos at 1×24 exchange rate.
State-owned companies will also undergo changes from January 1 to change from 1×1 to 1×24, which is expected to put them in a situation of lack of liquidity when it comes to paying salaries. For them, the state has devised bridge credits of between 150 and 180 days to try to save the abyss of January 1st.
These credits can be applied for from December 15.
With regard to other types of loans that have been granted to individuals, the Central Bank of Cuba assures that there will be no significant changes.
Banks open 11 and 12 hours a day
The First Vice President of the Central Bank of Cuba, Francisco Mayobre Lence, said for his part that to tackle the Task Order banks open between 11 and 12 daily, without clarifying whether for him the staff will be strengthened or workers will be forced to do paid overtime or not.
To that overexertion must be added the intensity of the work of these last days of December. For example, since this Monday they are refilling ATMs to pay pensioners ’pensions on the 17th of this month.
It is expected that the daily operations to be carried out in the banks will increase, that until they were around 2 million a day that can make the Government be satisfied with the increase in 70% of online operations, even if they do not contribute reference data to be able to compare or check if there are reasons for satisfaction.
To accommodate monetary unification, electronic payment channels will not operate on December 30 and 31. The Central Bank will be cut from 18:00 on December 30 and will be restored on January 1.
Therefore, your agendas in MLC will not work on December 31st.