The Central Bank’s November 7th announcement sets equal cash and card prices, stronger security requirements and deadlines for payment processors.

Businesses in Ecuador will be required to charge the same price for purchases made with cash or payment cards under new regulations approved November 6th. The changes also set security requirements for banks and card issuers, rules for handling fraudulent transactions and standards for companies that process payments for merchants.

The Financial and Monetary Policy and Regulation Board adopted Resolution JPRFM-2026-048-T. The Central Bank announced the measure November 7th, covering debit, credit and prepaid cards in the national payment system.

The equal-price rule covers promotions, discounts and sale offers. The regulation prohibits a card surcharge on purchases covered by its provisions. The provision addresses a practice familiar to shoppers who have been quoted one price for cash and another for a card purchase.

New requirements for cardholders

Issuers must provide free real-time notifications of covered transactions and events through at least two independent electronic channels. The rules also require a way to block a card immediately and customer-service channels available around the clock for theft, loss, claims and suspected fraud.

The regulation assigns issuers responsibility for reimbursement in specified cases of unauthorized use. These include transactions made after a customer has reported a card stolen or lost and losses linked to an issuer’s own security failure, subject to the procedures and conditions laid out in the resolution.

Physical cards are to be issued without sensitive information printed on them, including the full card number, expiration date and three-digit security code. The rule is designed to make information taken from a card less useful to someone attempting unauthorized transactions.

For online purchases, card issuers must introduce additional means of verifying the buyer’s identity without charging the cardholder for that protection. The Central Bank also says the resolution consolidates rules governing interest calculations, payment disclosure and the prohibition on charging interest on interest.

New companies in the payment business

The resolution opens card acquiring to authorized companies that are not banks. Such firms arrange for merchants to accept payments and receive settlement from the card network. They will need Central Bank authorization and minimum capital of $500,000.

Payment aggregators—technology companies that connect businesses to card-processing services—are subject to a separate $250,000 capital minimum. Businesses already authorized in that category will have one year to meet the new standard.

Another provision requires acquiring companies to transfer proceeds from ordinary card sales to merchants within five business days. The rules also seek broader acceptance of different card brands and issuers through the systems participating in a merchant’s payment arrangements.

The Central Bank will oversee authorization of new participants, and regulators will supervise compliance within their respective areas.

The Central Bank, Superintendency of Banks and cooperative-sector regulator have six months to adapt their rules to the new resolution. That transition period is important for changes that require new equipment, card designs or electronic systems; not every technical requirement will appear at every bank immediately.

The newly issued resolution establishes a national set of standards for pricing, fraud protection and the companies moving card payments between shoppers and merchants. For a customer confronting a proposed card surcharge, the central provision is straightforward: the listed cash price and a qualifying card price must be the same, including eligible discounts.