Fintech & payments regulation in Ecuador (2026)

The Central Bank of Ecuador issued Resolution BCE-GG-008-2025 specifying technical stages, integration milestones, and certification requirements for payment network administrators under the new Unified Payments Integration System (SIP). It operationalises the 2024 interoperability mandate through a phased rollout where larger institutions connect first and smaller ones receive extended timelines.

The Monetary Policy and Regulation Board (JPRM) issued Resolution JPRM-2024-029-M, amending the 2024 payment means norm to impose mandatory interoperability across all payment systems. All electronic transactions must be processed in real time, 24/7, so that any wallet, bank, or payment service provider can exchange transactions with any other instantly under common standards.

Published in Official Gazette No. 678, this BCE resolution replaced BCE-GG-018-2023 with stricter authorization, oversight, and supervision requirements for participants in Ecuador's Auxiliary Payment Systems. Existing authorized participants (digital wallets, aggregators, gateways) were given four months to submit enhanced documentation, significantly raising the supervisory bar.

The JPRM enacted 'Standards that Regulate Payment Means and Systems in Ecuador and the FinTech Activities of its Participants,' requiring all fintech payment providers (e-wallets, aggregators, gateways, remitters) to be locally incorporated, hold minimum capital of USD 200,000, maintain a BCE account, and obtain central bank authorisation before operating — the first detailed licensing rulebook under the 2022 Fintech Law.

President Guillermo Lasso signed the Reglamento to the Fintech Law, published in the Official Register on 14 November 2023. The decree split regulatory responsibilities between the JPRM (payment systems) and the JPRF (financial risk), and designated the BCE, Superintendency of Banks, and Superintendency of Companies as the licensing and supervisory authorities for their respective categories of fintech activity.

The Financial Policy and Regulation Board (JPRF) issued Resolution JPRF-F-2023-076, establishing the first dedicated oversight framework for fintech digital credit providers, covering AML risk management, credit portfolio qualification standards, and provisioning requirements — extending regulatory perimeter to online lenders beyond traditional payment services.

The National Assembly approved the Ley Orgánica para el Desarrollo, Regulación y Control de los Servicios Financieros Tecnológicos with 74 votes, published in Registro Oficial No. 215. The law defined fintech activities, created a multi-regulator licensing framework for payment providers, digital wallets, and electronic deposit companies, and introduced a regulatory sandbox — marking the end of Ecuador's decade-long absence of a dedicated fintech statute.

Published in Registro Oficial No. 151, this law created Ecuador's first legal framework for crowdfunding platforms (across four categories: donation, pre-purchase, equity, and reimbursable) and established the National Council for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CONEIN). Though not a full fintech law, it formally recognised technology-enabled financing models and laid the institutional groundwork that prefigured the 2022 Fintech Law.

The BCE's Sistema de Dinero Electrónico was officially shut down in March 2018, ending the world's first central-bank-operated retail CBDC after peaking at roughly 500,000 users amid weak merchant adoption. Accounts were migrated to BIMO, a mobile payment platform operated by a private bank consortium under BCE oversight, shifting Ecuador's mobile-payments model from a state monopoly to regulated private provision.

Ecuador enacted the Organic Monetary and Financial Code (Registro Oficial 332), the master statute governing the entire monetary and financial system. The COMF established the Junta de Política y Regulación Monetaria (JPRM) as the primary payment-policy body, granted the BCE authority over payment and clearing systems, banned private digital currencies including Bitcoin, and gave the BCE a statutory monopoly over electronic money issuance — the direct legal basis for the Dinero Electrónico program and all subsequent payment regulation.