Uruguay's BCU Prepares Open Finance Law for 2026

The Central Bank of Uruguay has included in its five-year strategic plan the drafting, by 2026, of a proposed open finance bill. The initiative seeks to enable an ecosystem in which users have greater control over their financial data and to move toward a minimum public infrastructure for interoperability between institutions.

What does the BCU plan propose?

Ámbito reported that the proposal is part of the central bank's third strategic focus, aimed at modernizing financial market infrastructure and improving system interoperability.

Cointelegraph en Español added that the strategic text includes explicit authority to regulate, supervise, and sanction participants in the ecosystem.

The same outlet said the 2026-2030 plan still does not set a date for submission to Parliament or a later implementation timeline.

For now, this is a future legislative initiative within the regulator's agenda.

What is the technical scope and intended use of data?

El País said the proposal is part of the financial market infrastructure focus and is intended to build a modern, interoperable, secure, and innovative ecosystem.

In that context, it linked the initiative to cross-border payments and to open finance models with lower transaction costs.

Búsqueda also placed the strengthening of financial market infrastructure among the goals of the 2026-2030 strategic plan and mentioned the inclusion of open finance and cross-border payments to achieve more efficient, accessible, and interoperable systems.

In a separate report on the topic, El País explained that the system proposed in Uruguay would allow individuals and companies to authorize the exchange of their financial data between institutions and providers registered with the BCU.

That coverage also raised risks and mitigation mechanisms in the discussion about money laundering and data protection in the future regulation.

What public reaction did the proposal generate?

The discussion has already prompted a union response.

El País reported that AEBU warned the open finance system "is not neutral" and "reconfigures the rules of the game," and said it could deal a competitive blow to Banco República, or BROU.

With these elements in place, the BCU is moving toward a draft that will seek to organize the exchange of financial data, define supervision rules, and lay the groundwork for interoperability in Uruguay's system.