The commission of Consumer Defense of the Chamber of Deputiess convened this Wednesday specialists in financial user protection. The objective: analyze the debt crisis that millions of Argentine families are going through.
At the meeting it was revealed that there are around 18 bills related to debt restructuring and protection of failed consumers. The speakers agreed that the current situation is unprecedented.
The first to present was Lucia Cavallerosociologist and teacher specialized in family economics. Their figures set off all the alarms.
“Argentine families today accumulate 39 billion pesos in debts“, he stated. And he added a more worrying fact: the Central Bank reported levels of delinquency never seen in the last 20 years.
“The particularity is that the debt is not circumstantial or transitory, but is used to survive and cover basic expenses,” Cavallero explained. That is why he proposed that any debt restructuring must guarantee that families do not fall below the poverty line.
Record late payments and the collapse of virtual wallets
Arturo Pozzali, Deputy Ombudsman of CABA, confirmed the critical panorama. “There is a systematic increase in complaints and queries of families that cannot meet their payments, mainly due to lack of capacity,” he said.
But he pointed out another equally serious problem. Unlike traditional banks, communication with virtual wallets is extremely difficult.
“The relationship with these platforms is becoming more and more complex.“Pozzali criticized. Users are left in a helpless situation when they need to negotiate a debt or resolve a claim.
From Rosario, Ariadna Ciammarriello coordinated his exhibition virtually. He works in the Citizens’ Rights Office of the Municipal Council of that Santa Fe city.
Their numbers are conclusive: “Today the requests for debt financing are almost equal to the complaints about virtual scams“That is, there are as many victims of fraud as there are people who cannot pay their commitments.
“The consumer who comes to our office really has a willingness to pay,” Ciammarriello highlighted. The problem is not bad faith, but the material impossibility of compliance.
And he took aim directly at the financial entities: he questioned the “aggressive, easy and immediate expansion of credit” and the lack of responsibility in evaluating the user’s real credit capacity.
600% rates and the refinancing business
Pedro Bussetti, head of the Defense of Users and Consumers (Deuco), was the harshest in his diagnosis. He denounced that the real deal is in perpetual refinancing.
“We see rates of 500% or 600% in the neighborhoods, especially when we talk to retirees,” he said. According to his analysis, these conditions are producing the bankruptcy of families without any solution tool.
Bussetti blamed the current economic plan directly for the massive over-indebtedness. “We are talking about millions of Argentines in this situation,” he emphasized.
Its proposal is clear: create a legal mechanism that allows the user to sit with the creditor on equal terms. “Something that works throughout the country and that allows debts to be refinanced how companies do it“, he exemplified.
Alejandra Fernández Scarano, public accountant and member of the Center for Argentine Political Economy (CEPA), presented a detailed report on late payments. She currently serves as Hurlingham’s treasury secretary.
His technical explanation is lapidary: “The worse the quality of the credit, the rate is higher because there are higher delinquency and higher risk“. It is a vicious circle from which families cannot escape.
The projects that exist in Deputies in search of a solution
In that scenario, The Chamber of Deputies of the Argentine Nation received at least six projects that propose different tools to face the same problem.
The first initiative with interblock support was promoted by the Entre Ríos Guillermo Michel (Union for the Homeland)along with legislators from Encuentro Federal and Natalia de la Sota. The project proposes the creation of a “Debt Reduction Program for Argentine Families”, which includes a “ANSES direct credit line for retirees, workers, monotributistas and other beneficiaries of social plans”with the objective that they can cancel liabilities “under less unfavorable conditions.” The maximum amount provided is $1,500,000, with a rate defined in “normal market conditions”, linked to the TAMAR plus 10 percentage points.
Within the same space, the deputies Natalia Zaracho and Itaí Hagman They promoted declaring a credit emergency for households for a period of two years. The proposal contemplates the implementation of ““measures that contribute to alleviating the situation of over-indebtedness of families through audits, acquisition and debt restructuring.” Within this framework, an Essential Debt Reduction Regime would be created, which would allow liabilities to be organized under a scheme in which installments do not exceed 30% of income.
In turn, three legislators from the bloc supported an initiative from Buenos Aires Santiago Roberto, which proposes the forgiveness of debts for low-income sectors, the refinancing of outstanding balances and the suspension for 90 days of judicial proceedings against debtors.
Another proposal was presented by a group of 15 deputies from Unión por la Patria, led by Roxana Monzón. The text promotes the creation of the National Financial Relief and Family Debt Reduction Program, aimed at “facilitating the cancellation of liabilities of individuals and their families in a situation of delinquency or risk of insolvency”, especially when it comes to essential goods or services. Among its points, it establishes that credit entities must “offer at the simple request of the owner the rescheduling of the debts originated.”
From another space, the Santa Fe deputies Esteban Paulón and Pablo Farías (United Provinces) They proposed changes to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Law. The initiative seeks to incorporate consumer credit debtors as subjects “subject to special protection” and limit income seizures to prevent them from falling below the poverty line.
Finally, the Buenos Aires Marcela Pagano presented a comprehensive draft of the Federal Law on Responsible Credit and Debt Reduction. The proposal includes limits on debt, regulation of credit advertising, the creation of an early warning system based on open finance and an extraordinary regime to restructure debts.
Together, the initiatives reflect a diagnosis shared in Congress: the increase in family debt and the need to design tools that allow alleviating that burden without aggravating the economic fragility of households.
The Spanish model as a possible solution
Gabriel Martínez Medrano, Legal Director of the Association for the Defense of the Rights of Users and Consumers (Adduc), brought a concrete proposal. He spoke about the “Second Chance Regime” that works in Spain.
This system allows individuals to restructure all their debts in a single judicial process. It is a tool similar to the preventive contests that companies have.
“The main legal problem in Argentina is the fragmentation of consumer debts, which is accentuated by credit assignments,” explained Martínez Medrano. For people who are not traders there is no easy, cheap, fast and fair mechanism.
Its approach aims to create a comprehensive regime that unifies all the debts of a family. That the consumer can sit down once with all his creditors and reach a reasonable agreement.
Claudio Boada, representing the Union of Users and Consumers, expanded his view of the problem. “If we talk only about over-indebted people, we are only working on the consequences,” he warned.
For Boada, the real solution lies elsewhere. “We need to recover purchasing power of salaries and pensions“he stressed.
Their argument is simple: as long as income is not enough to cover basic needs, families will continue to resort to credit to survive. And the vicious circle will continue.
At the beginning of the meeting, the legislators completed the Commission’s management positions that had yet to be appointed. Marcelo Barbur, from Unión por la Patria, was endorsed for the second vice presidency.
Meanwhile, the first and third secretariats were left in the hands of Rosario Goitia, from La Libertad Avanza, and Sergio Casas, also from Unión por la Patria. The commission was formally established to advance with the analysis of the 18 bills presented.
