Description

As from issue number 50, the Series of Economic Studies of the Central Bank of Chile will be called Studies in Economic Statistics.

Technological advances and the development of new payment instruments have triggered the replacement of traditional instruments, cash and checks, by electronic ones, both in Chile and around the world. This replacement is attributed to the latter’s characteristics of safety and convenience. In comparison with developed economies, Chile still has a low use of electronic transfers of funds and credit and debit cards. However, in a Latin American comparison, it is located in the upper part of the distribution, where worth mentioning is the use of debit cards that intensifies with the appearance of the sight account "CuentaRut". In economic terms, this tendency of the payment means has an impact on the demand for money or some of its components, which is what is sought to determine in this paper using a VECM. The results show different responses of money and its components to the increase in payment instruments transactions. Currency is reduced by substitution effect, while the balances in current accounts and deposit and savings accounts increase with the use of debit cards, by complementarity between products. Meanwhile, credit cards cause a decline in the current account balances, associated with the lag between the moments the goods are purchased and paid.