Cuba to keep convertible peso accounts until December 2022

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 1 (ACN) Resolution 74/2022 of the Central Bank of Cuba, published in the Official Gazette of the Republic, extends, until December 28, the term for the convertible peso account balance of demand savings, time deposits and certificates of deposit of natural persons to be converted, totally or partially, into Cuban pesos or opt for the certificate of deposit in foreign currency, according to the conditions established for this product.

The new provision also clarifies that the exchange rate established for such conversion will be twenty-four Cuban pesos for one convertible peso, to U.S. dollars or euros.

The document also establishes that collaborators abroad, holders of bank accounts in Cuban pesos to which the 30 % discount is applied for purchases in commercial establishments, have until December 28, 2022, to request the total or partial conversion of the balance they had at the time the monetary and exchange unification was decreed, to U.S. dollars or euros, using the certificate of deposit.

It also indicated that the authorization will be admitted, in cases where the holder of the bank account is abroad, to convert the total or partial balance of the accounts in convertible pesos of demand savings, fixed term deposits and certificates of deposits in foreign currency, provided that the representation is evidenced by means of a Special Power of Attorney.

In addition, it establishes that the demand savings bank accounts, time deposits and certificates of deposit in convertible pesos of natural persons, which are kept in that currency, after December 28 of the current year, are automatically converted into Cuban pesos, at the exchange rate of twenty-four Cuban pesos for one convertible peso, in the modality and term originally contracted, and generate interest in this currency at the corresponding rate.

On January 1, 2021, Cuba eliminated the legal circulation of the CUC and established a single exchange rate of 24 pesos for one dollar, in a process of monetary and exchange unification during which the CUP (Cuban peso) remained as the only unified currency.