Electronic banking in Costa Rica has grown up. It is now easy, fast, and efficient.
Transfers from Interfin last week to the national banks, Banco Nacional, Banco de Costa Rica and Banco Crédito Agrícola de Cartago, worked easily. Transfers from the Banco de Costa Rica to the private banks Interfin, Banco San José, Scotia Bank, and Cuscatlan worked just as flawlessly. All banks in Costa Rica are currently interconnected. Transfers can be made in either U. S. dollars or Costa Rican colons.
The Central Bank of Costa Rica moved its interbank payments and transaction system called the Sistema Interbancario de Negociación y Pagos Electrónicos to Microsoft’s .NET technologies at the end of 2002. Carlos Arraya, the CEO of ArtinSoft, a Costa Rican company, worked closely with Microsoft to migrate and improve the system over the past five years. The ArtinSoft founder and CEO was chosen as one of the most successful and respected executives in Central America by SUMMA Magazine in June 2006 for his work on this and other projects.
Making a transfer is easy. However, the various banks use different terminology to refer to the electronic transfers. And you have to know and use a 17-digit number for the receiving account.
Interfin, a private bank, uses TEF, short for “Transferencia Electrónica de Fondos.” It is located under the Inter-Sinpe section of the menu that is located on the left-hand side of the screen on Interfin’s Inter-Banca Website.
At the Banco de Costa Rica, a national bank, they use “Transfer.SINPE” to refer to the interbank transfers. Currently, they have a flashing “nuevo” symbol next to the menu item located on the left of their “Oficina Virtual” Website.
The Banco Nacional is a national bank used by many in Costa Rica because the bank has locations everywhere. Even in the smallest towns it has the transfer system located under the menu item “Transferencias” sub-menu “Otros bancos en CR” on their “Internet Personal” Website.
The Banco de San José calls their system “Cheque Electrónico.” To use it, one needs to read a bunch of extraneous material and sign up for the service. The Banco de San José has adopted a system of “making things that are simple extremely complex” along with governmental institutions in Costa Rica. To coax people to use the system, they are offering it free until March 31. This fact is found in very minute print on one of the information pages.
The system is fast. All transfers made took less than one hour to reach their destinations. The system can also work in real-time or overnight versus same day. Same day transactions are what is available on most banks Websites. Calling the financial instructions regarding the other options met with “phone void,” meaning the person on the other end of the line did not know what to answer, so they became verbally paralyzed, a common occurrence in Costa Rica.
The interbank system works in theory from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. However, each bank has its hours ranging from starting at 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. ending at 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The system is efficient. Prices to use the electronic transfer system vary widely. Banco Credito Agricola de Cartago charges as much as U.S. $20 for a transfer, while the Banco Nacional charges U.S. $2.
Is it worth the money? Yes, it is!
Consider sending U.S. $1,000 from an Interfin account to a vendor's account at the Banco Nacional. With the Sistema Interbancario de Negociación y Pagos Electrónicos the transfer will cost $5 and take less than an hour.
The alternative is to send a messenger or go in person to Interfin. Then wait for a teller if there is a line, cash a check, carry the cash through the dangerous streets to a Banco Nacional office, wait in another line for a teller and deposit the money in the vendor's account. From a cost-benefit perspective, $5 is cheap, compared to spending a bunch of time in lines and risk being robbed or worse.
Costa Rica’s interbank transfer system is not new, but now it is working and working great. The system is worth a test drive. Soon the system will work throughout Central America and all over the world. Some banks, like Interfin, the Banco de San José and others have regional and international systems in place online today.
Article first published in A.M. Costa Rica on February 19, 2007.
