Digital Payments & Fintech · Bolivia
Fintech & payments regulation in Bolivia (2026)
Bolivia shaded by its digital payments & fintech status
Fintech and digital payments in Bolivia: licensing regime, under Ley N° 393 de Servicios Financieros + Decreto Supremo N° 5384 (7 May 2025) and ASFI Resolution ASFI/540/2025 (Reglamento para Empresas de Tecnología Financiera), with BCB's Reglamento de Servicios de Pago e Instrumentos Electrónicos de Pago; supervised by ASFI and the Banco Central de Bolivia (BCB)..
Bolivia has an in-force licensing regime for digital payments and fintech. Mobile-payment companies (ESPM) and electronic-card administrators (EATE) issuing electronic payment instruments are licensed and supervised by ASFI under the Financial Services Law (Ley 393), while the BCB operates a mandatory interoperable QR rail. In May 2025 the government enacted Decreto Supremo 5384, creating a dedicated 'Empresa de Tecnología Financiera' (ETF) licence, covering payments, blockchain, tokenized and virtual assets, that requires a constitution permit and operating licence from ASFI, with a regulatory sandbox and an adaptation deadline for existing fintechs.
Key points
Decreto Supremo N° 5384 (7 May 2025) and its implementing ASFI Resolution ASFI/540/2025 require fintechs to incorporate as financial entities and obtain a constitution permit plus an operating licence from ASFI, covering payment systems, blockchain solutions, tokenized assets and virtual-asset services (PSAV).
ASFI is the licensing/supervisory authority for the financial system, securities and insurance fintech activities; the BCB regulates and oversees the national payment system. ASFI announced it would regulate 209 fintechs (176 virtual-asset providers and 33 payment platforms).
Under Ley 393 and ASFI's Reglamento de Servicios de Pago, mobile-payment companies (Empresas de Servicio de Pago Móvil, ESPM) and electronic-card administrators (EATE) are licensed by ASFI and issue regulated electronic payment instruments (IEP), including mobile wallets.
The BCB mandates a common, interoperable QR standard across the financial system (banks, cooperatives, housing-finance and development-finance entities), with obligatory interconnection and free processing on digital channels; QR transfers grew 131% in 2025 vs 2024.
In October 2025 the BCB launched OpenBCB, framed under Ley 1670 (BCB Law) and the Reglamento de Cuentas Transitorias de Liquidación, to broaden access to QR-based electronic payments and enable non-bank participants to connect to the payment system.
The ETF regime introduces a regulatory sandbox (Entorno Controlado de Pruebas) under direct ASFI supervision; existing fintechs were given an adaptation window to obtain licences, with the deadline extended to 30 April 2026.
Timeline - major decisions & events
The Central Bank of Bolivia released its first formal report on the 'Boliviano Digital,' concluding that a wholesale CBDC targeting financial institutions is the preferred model, and launching a critical development path projected through 2026 to modernise high-value interbank settlement.
Banco Central de Bolivia ↗ASFI issued the operational regulation for Financial Technology Companies (ETF) authorised under Supreme Decree 5384, establishing a 12-to-36-month regulatory sandbox, tiered economic guarantees, and a December 31 2025 deadline for the estimated 209 already-operating fintechs to obtain a constitution permit or operating licence.
ASFI ↗The executive enacted the first statute expressly recognising and regulating Financial Technology Companies (ETF) across five service lines, payment systems, blockchain/tokenised assets, lending platforms, insurtech and enterprise tech, placing them under ASFI supervision and giving 40+ unregulated fintechs a formal legal basis for the first time.
Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas Públicas ↗The BCB approved a consolidated Reglamento del Sistema de Liquidación Integrada de Pagos (SLIP), unifying and modernising the normative framework for high-value electronic clearing and settlement and superseding prior piecemeal settlement rules.
Banco Central de Bolivia ↗The BCB replaced the 2015 payment services framework with a comprehensive updated regulation that for the first time expressly defined and regulated payment gateway administrators, strengthened consumer-protection obligations for Electronic Financial Entities and Mobile Payment Companies, and aligned Bolivia's payments infrastructure with regional norms.
Banco Central de Bolivia ↗Bolivia enacted the Financial Services Law that established electronic payment instruments as a regulated category for the first time, assigned ASFI authority to supervise payment service providers, set mandatory consumer-protection standards, and created the statutory base on which all subsequent digital-payments and fintech regulation has been built.
ASFI / Gaceta Oficial de Bolivia ↗ASFI granted E-FECTIVO ESPM S.A. (Tigo Money) the country's first Mobile Payment Service Company operating licence, and the service formally launched on January 9 2013, marking the commercial birth of Bolivia's digital payments ecosystem and establishing the ESPM licensing model later codified in the 2015 BCB regulation.
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