Mexico's chambers back digital payments but want card fees fixed before the 15-business-day clock

vcity

@vcity · oct 27 2026 · 4 min read

Mexico's chambers back digital payments but want card fees fixed before the 15-business-day clock

Mexico's digital-payments law is one signature away from starting a 15-business-day clock for the Finance Ministry to name the sectors where cash stops being accepted — and the country's chambers want the card fees fixed first. "We want more digital payments, but every digital payment has to leave more value in the business and not become a new fixed cost for whoever has the smallest margin," said Octavio de la Torre, president of CONCANACO SERVYTUR, at a press conference on 21 October. Mexico City's chamber said the same day that it backs the law but opposes making digital payment the only option in a sector while bank commissions stay high.

What the law changes, and what it still leaves open

The Senate approved the Ley de Economía Digital para Pagos Digitales y Electrónicos on 20 October, after the lower house passed it on 6 October. It awaits publication in the Diario Oficial and takes effect the day after. The Finance Ministry then has 15 business days to publish the sectors and activities where digital payment may be the only accepted form, and sector authorities have 15 more for their rules and transition schedules — about 30 business days, or six weeks. The caveat: the law names no sectors, sets no criteria and carries no sanction regime of its own. The chambers' asks are proposals, not decisions, and commission levels vary by provider, contract and transaction.

Why the cash gap is the real target

CONCANACO's diagnosis puts commissions as the main barrier to accepting digital payments (35% of mentions), ahead of connectivity (20.7%), preference for cash (17.4%), awareness (16.9%), the time for funds to be available (15.4%) and security (10.4%). For a micro or small business, going digital is not just buying a terminal: hardware runs from 99 to 3,500 pesos, and commissions reach 5.39% per sale. The law's own reasoning says the gap is adoption, not infrastructure: cash as a frequent payment method fell from 90.1% to 85.2% between 2021 and 2024 on purchases of 500 pesos or less, while transfers and mobile apps rose from 1.6% to 4.4%. Banxico counted 8,623.8 million debit-card payments in 2025, up 20.7% on 2024, with 210.1 million debit and 48.9 million credit cards in circulation — and 98% of people still using cash daily.

What the chambers are asking for

CONCANACO set five conditions: a gradual transition rather than an imposition, preferential commissions for micro and small businesses, real competition between providers, tax certainty, and a government that digitises its own procedures. It has asked for a permanent technical roundtable with Banxico, the Finance Ministry and the banking regulator, and proposed using FINABIEN's 1,700-plus branches for training; a national digital-literacy campaign is planned for late November into 2027. CANACO CDMX wants a roundtable with authorities and banks, transparent terminal and transaction costs, and financing for adoption. The next dated test is El Buen Fin, the chamber-run campaign of 13–17 November, which requires participating shops to have a card terminal.

What it means for chambers and guilds

For a chamber, the law turns a member service into a negotiation. The sectors Hacienda names will decide which members must accept cards, and the chamber is the only body that can put a number on what that costs them. The window is short — 15 business days from publication to the sector list — so the chambers that arrive with their members' real costs will shape the rules. The ones that arrive with anecdotes will not.

Why this matters

The transition is sold as inclusion, and the numbers support the direction: card payments are growing and cash is receding. But the cost of accepting a card lands on the business with the thinnest margin, and the law leaves the hardest decision — which sectors, on what timetable — to a ministry with no criteria to follow.

This week

Measure how much of your members' revenue still arrives in cash, and where. The law's own justification says the gap is adoption, not infrastructure.
Ask ten members for their real cost of accepting a card: hardware, monthly fee, commission per sale. That is the number to take to the roundtable.
Get members registered for El Buen Fin before 12 November, and check that their product information is findable online — the campaign now runs on counters and screens alike.

Chambers can't set card fees — they can put members' catalogs online all year

The fee negotiation belongs to the confederation and the banks. What a chamber controls is whether a member's catalogue can be found on a Tuesday in March, not only during a four-day fair. vcity hosts a 3D marketplace for the guild, with each member's catalogue and the link the chamber can send to buyers and members. No promises on fees, taxes or compliance — those are the negotiation, not the platform.

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