28 September 2026

The Banco Central de Cuba (BCC) has responded to a sharp deterioration in the value of the Cuban Peso and rising inflation by introducing measures intended to change the country’s monetary and banking framework.

The announced intent is to remove many of the existing constraints that the country’s outdated banking system has placed on Cubans and national economic development.

The new measures include the issue of CUP10,000 and CUP20,000 banknotes; the licensing of a first privately operated foreign exchange bank; an announcement that banks with private and foreign capital would be licensed; the authorisation of significantly larger transfers between individuals; and the relaxation of rules governing non-state entities’ holdings of foreign exchange.

Cuba’s BCC said that the intention is also to reduce bank queues, decrease in-person visits, facilitate access to cash, restore credit, and ensure that bank accounts can be used effectively for the  receipt of savings, granting credit, facilitating payments and collections, and handling the external operations of companies and individuals at a time of economic stress.

The developments come as the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) reported year-on-year inflation in the formal market to have reached 25.19% during August. According to some analysts, the inflation figure would be over 50% if prices in the informal market were to be included. Independent monitoring of the informal exchange rate suggests that in September this passed CUP700 to the US Dollar for the first time. On this basis the new CUP20,000 bill is worth about US$28.

The measures taken together, mark the most significant change to the country’s monetary and banking framework since the failed ‘Tarea Ordenamiento’ of 2021.

Aim now is to align the system with ‘situation in the economy’

Announcing the new approach on 16 September the President of the BCC, Juana Lilia Delgado, said the aim was to adapt “to the situation of the economy, particularly to the conditions of prices and to the needs of monetary circulation.”

Speaking subsequently on the television and radio programme ‘Mesa Redonda’, the Bank’s  Vice-President, Alberto Quiñones, and its Director of Payment Systems, Ian Carbonell, provided more detail on the extensive new measures being introduced.

They confirmed that Cuba’s first non-state exchange house since the revolution had opened on 14 September in Santa Clara, and that its transaction values would in future be considered when the Bank calculated the country’s official Segment III floating rate.

The officials also announced that the monthly ceiling on transfers between individuals would rise from CUP120,000 to CUP2.5mn; that commissions on payment gateways would fall from 1.5% to 0.8%; that banks with private and foreign capital would be licensed under the new banking legislation; that the creation of an agricultural bank, the Banco de Desarrollo y Fomento Agrícola is in its final stage; that regulations on crypto-assets were being drafted; and that pensions (as reported previously) would increasingly be paid through non-state shops, an arrangement already piloted in Havana which will soon be extended elsewhere to enable pensioners to access to cash easily.

They confirmed that the new Agricultural Development Bank will specialise in financing agricultural activity and food production. New participants seeking credits from the facility, they said, will have to obtain a license from the Central Bank and will be subject to its supervision to obtain loans that are intended in part to finance the introduction of  new technologies, knowledge, and improved management.

Another change announced will be the creation of a new mechanism for managing interest rates which Quiñones said will be “more financial and less administrative.” Commercial banks , he noted, would have greater autonomy to set their offers according to market conditions and the needs of their clients.

The intention now, he said, is for entities to compete to attract deposits and subsequently be able to use those resources to grant loans. The BCC is also preparing new credit products, including consumer credit, the details of which have not yet been announced.

In a further development the Ministry of Economy and Planning gazetted a resolution permitting non-state economic actors to open foreign-currency accounts without prior authorisation, to accept foreign exchange in cash, and to make payments abroad directly from those accounts.

To monitor the implementation of the measures at a provincial and municipal level under Cuba’s partially decentralised system of government, the National Assembly has established three working groups to support and monitor delivery  of the new measures.

Extensive changes underway in other areas reported

In addition, coverage in Cuba’s state media noted that:

• Loans for the acquisition of renewable energy are to be made more efficient.

• The limit for transfers between accounts of natural persons can be more than CUP2.5mn. Larger transfers will require a customer to declare the purpose of the transaction and provide other information required by the bank.

• A new resolution now in effect will make foreign exchange transactions more flexible for non-state economic actors by making a banking license no longer necessary. Private businesses will be able to deposit cash into foreign currency current accounts subject to due diligence and verification of the funds’ legal origin. They will also be able to order payments abroad to pay foreign suppliers directly from their banks if related to their sphere of economic activity.

• The new regulations enable economic actors who need it to have foreign currency accounts abroad, with the knowledge of the Central Bank and the tax authority.

• Digital transformation is to be rolled out nationally to enable real-time transaction processing and to obviate the need to visit banks. The goal being to enable transfers between different banks. In addition, the use of digital payments is to be incentivised.

• The announced transformations will also include the regulation of fintech companies which use technology to offer financial services. Such entities will be subject to different regulations than those applicable to traditional banks but they will be able to become part of the new financial ecosystem.

• The Central Bank is working on updating its cryptocurrency regulations based on a study of international experience. The objective is to make authorisations more flexible, while reinforcing supervision over authorised platforms.

The underlying aim of all these transformations, the BCC’s Vice-President, Alberto Quiñones, told viewers of  ‘Mesa Redonda,’ is to move towards “a banking and financial system that is secure, modern, agile, and efficient, capable of contributing to economic recovery and responding more quickly and effectively to the needs of its clients.”

Cuba’s friends and enemies are expected to be watching closely to verify whether such goals can be achieved in the short term given the structural deterioration of the Cuban economy.

Cuba Briefing – Issue 1324

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