The Central Bank of Uruguay announced that as of Thursday the multiacquisition process will be completed, which enables businesses to have a single contract with all Mastercard and Visa debit, credit and electronic money cards.As of June this year, the country had 99,152 POS throughout the country, almost 30,000 more than two years ago |The ObserverThis Thursday, September 1, would not be another day for Uruguayan businesses that use digital payment methods.Merchants and service providers will have the possibility of having all the debit and credit card payment options through a single provider of their choice.The Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU) announced that as of that day the multiacquisition process will be completed, which enables businesses to have a single contract with all Mastercard and Visa debit, credit and electronic money cards.Said contract is agreed with the acquiring companies, which are those authorized to offer businesses and services the mechanism to process the aforementioned means of payment."In this new operating framework, businesses obtain the benefit of being able to choose between various options to achieve the best conditions adapted to their needs," said the BCU.The Central Bank of Uruguay "recommends businesses to evaluate the new conditions of the offers available in the market and hopes that this progress will allow moving towards greater competition and efficiency of the payment system, similar to the results obtained in other countries."To reach this instance of opening, the companies in the market were the protagonists of a process of dialogue and adaptation of their technology, which was promoted by the Central Bank.This milestone was reached after a long work process carried out from the implementation of the Roadmap for the Payment System in Uruguay that the Central Bank initiated in 2020. The president of the BCU, Diego Labat, will receive this Wednesday 31 to the media to explain more details about the operation of this new milestone in the Uruguayan payment system.According to the Report of the Retail Payment System for the January-June semester of the BCU, in that period 151 million transactions were made with debit cards and another 108 million with credit plastics.In the first case, $168,886 million (about US$4,142 million) and $149,885 million (about US$3,676 million) were mobilized in the second.At the end of the first semester, Uruguay had 3.4 million credit cards, almost 5 thousand more than those issued at the end of December.Meanwhile, as of June of this year, the country had 99,152 POS throughout the country, almost 30,000 more than there were two years agoEnacom finalized the call that will generate income for an estimated amount of US$ 27.7 million."It will enhance access to networks to build a more democratic society with equal opportunities," the agency issued in a statement."This tender will enhance access to networks, not only in large cities, but also in the most vulnerable populations, in rural areas or far from urban centers, to build a more democratic society with equal opportunities.| TélamThe National Communications Entity (Enacom) of Argentina finalized on Tuesday the tender for mobile telephony frequencies for the deployment of the 4G Internet service throughout the country, which will generate revenues for an estimated amount of US$ 27.7 million, equivalent to $ 4,018 million, reported the agency.The technical and administrative process, initiated by Resolution 798/22 in May of this year, aimed to increase and improve coverage in those areas with little or no quality of mobile services and gives providers the possibility of increasing the amount of spectrum assigned."Based on this assignment and reordering of the spectrum, providers Claro, Movistar and Personal will be granted the possibility of equalizing their holdings both in total amounts and in amounts assigned in the 2600 MHz band. This will increase efficiency in the use of the band, given the new contiguous layout of the assigned ranges," Enacom reported in a statement.And he added: "This tender will enhance access to networks, not only in large cities, but also in the most vulnerable populations, in rural areas or far from urban centers, to build a more democratic society with equal opportunities. In the same way, it will result in the expansion of economic and professional benefits for all regions of the country, by promoting the arrival of new investments in the different productive sectors".The objective of the tender is to promote the general efficiency and competition between the operators of the Mobile Communications Service, which will ultimately produce a greater benefit and more quality for the users of the 4G service.The current management of Enacom -said the agency- considers Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as a basic human right essential for the construction of citizenship and federalism and, for them, "prioritizes the reduction of the digital gap to through State policies for the deployment of connectivity in order to create new sources of work and develop specialized labor for the industries of the present and future"."It contemplates 52 actions and measures presented to correct the infractions detected in this auditable unit, whose sanctioning procedure began in November 2016, after this Superintendence detected six infractions in said operation," the environmental authority said in a statement.The Superintendence of the Environment (SMA) explained that the new program includes observations made by the Antofagasta Environmental Court in its July 2020 ruling. |ReutersThe Chilean environmental regulator reported on Tuesday that it approved an expected compliance plan (PdC) of the lithium producer SQM for the equivalent of about US$52 million, which contemplates the progressive reduction of the water and brine that it consumes from the Salar de Atacama.The Superintendency of the Environment (SMA) explained that the new program includes observations made by the Antofagasta Environmental Court in its July 2020 ruling."The PdC contemplates 52 actions and measures presented to correct the infractions detected in this auditable unit, whose sanctioning procedure began in November 2016, after this Superintendence detected six infractions in said operation," he said in a statement.The approval of the plan had been a headache for the miner, as it moves forward with its plan to expand its operations amid growing demand for the light metal used in electric car batteries."As a company, we have executed a large part of the measures that are part of the approved PdC and we hope to implement all the commitments assumed with the authority and the communities in the coming weeks," SQM said in a statement following the approval.Among the faults detected were the overextraction of brine;affectation of carob trees;delivery of incomplete information to the authorities, among others.The plan establishes the application of a staggered reduction in the maximum brine extraction limit until it reaches 822 liters per second from 2027, a little less than 50% of the authorized extraction;and reduce the total flow of industrial water also by 50%.The water around the vast Salar de Atacama, both fresh and brine, has long been a sticking point for miners operating in the world's driest desert, home to nearly a quarter of the world's current supply of lithium. world.In April of this year, the State Defense Council (CDE) sued BHP, Antofagasta and Albemarle mines for irregularities in the extraction from an aquifer in the area, which would have impacted the fragile ecosystem.