Chile tightens bank and debt controls

Chile’s Financial Market Commission issued General Rule No. 583 and set tougher standards for electronic payments and transfers. The rule moves away from mechanisms based only on printed data, such as coordinate cards, and requires stronger customer authentication for transfers and digital onboarding. At the same time, the Ministry of Finance added cybersecurity safeguards for the Market Makers Transaction System, while the CMF fined Banco Santander and Banco de Chile for failing to comply with the rule on child support debtors.

What changes with CMF General Rule No. 583?

The new rule requires stronger customer authentication, with at least two of three elements: something the customer knows, something the customer has, or something inherent to the customer. According to AS Chile, that applies to transfers and digital onboarding processes, and it marks the gradual replacement of printed tools such as coordinate cards.

AS Chile also said the CMF decided to push back the mandatory elimination date for coordinate cards by one year. The original deadline was August 1, 2025. The move followed controversy and the potential impact on older adults who still rely on those tools to bank online.

What does Finance require for the STFM?

The Ministry of Finance is asking the provider of the Market Makers Transaction System to deliver applicable information security certifications, operational continuity and disaster recovery plans, and incident management protocols with reporting to the fiscal agent and the affected market makers. It also requires segregation and protection of each market maker’s quotation and transaction data from third parties.

The official document says the STFM operator must be a legal entity domiciled in Chile, and that these cybersecurity safeguards will be explicitly required in the tender as technical evaluation criteria. The public communication on the program added that implementation of the scheme, which includes the STFM, will have a six-month reference pilot period before official operation, with voluntary participation by banks and securities intermediaries and evaluation under objective rules and compliance incentives.

What is happening with the Atena sandbox for the FAS?

The CMF is moving ahead with the implementation of the Open Finance System and, according to Chócale, the Atena regulatory sandbox will be available in October. That environment will define technical requirements for availability, performance, contingencies, and security for system participants.

What sanctions did the CMF impose on the banks?

The CMF fined Banco Santander and Banco de Chile for granting loans to people listed in the child support debtor registry without meeting the obligation to check that registry and withhold up to 50% of the loan amount when the applicant appears as a debtor. CNN Chile reported the sanctions, and BioBioChile detailed the amounts: Santander was fined 2,656.46 UF, or about 108.5 million pesos, for 27 transactions, while Banco de Chile was fined 238.14 UF, or about 9.7 million pesos, for 7 transactions.

ADN Radio added that Santander acknowledged responsibility during the investigation and that the CMF had already issued three other fines between January 2024 and February 2025 for violations of the same article of Law No. 14,908. In Banco de Chile’s case, the bank attributed part of the noncompliance to technology problems and errors in the automated registry check.