PERU: An Introduction to FinTech Legal

The Peruvian FinTech ecosystem is developing in a growing market backed by a middle-to-high income economy and a strong private and public commitment to innovation, which is reflected in a series of initiatives such as those led by Proinnovate and COFIDE. 

Furthermore, as outlined by the Central Reserve Bank of Peru (BCRP) in its September 2025 Report on the National Payment System, the FinTech sector plays a complementary and competitive role in the financial system, providing new alternatives and giving more users access to financing opportunities that they would not be able to obtain through traditional banking.

The Rise of Digital Payments and the Path to Open Finance

In this regard, the BCRP has promoted interoperability through various regulations, paving the way for open banking. For instance, Circular No 024-2022-BCRP approved the Interoperability Regulations for Payment Services provided by Payment Service Providers, Agreements and Payments Systems, and Circular No 0027-2022-BCRP approved the Regulation on Card Payment Agreements.

According to the BCRP, those regulations allowed 132 million interoperable transactions to be processed in digital wallets Yape and Plin between June 2024 and June 2025. Added to this milestone are players such as electronic money institutions (EMIs/EEDEs), card payment networks, issuers, acquirers and payment facilitators, which also contribute on a daily basis to more people in the unbanked sector using digital payments in their daily lives.

The interoperability efforts led by the BCRP have been reinforced by the 2024 reform of the Payment and Securities Settlement Systems Act, Legislative Decree No 1665, which empowers the BCRP to regulate licensing processes and set minimum capital requirements for players in the National Payment System.

Crypto-Assets and AML

To date, the only Peruvian regulation on crypto-assets is that relating to anti-money laundering, applicable to virtual asset service providers (VASPs). It dates back to 2024 (SBS Resolution No 2024) and sets out obligations in relation to AML/CFT. In line with international trends and FATF recommendations, this regulation has included the application of the travel rule as an obligation for VASPs from November 2026, which poses a challenge in terms of information management and inter-institutional co-operation.

In addition, VASPs face challenges such as opening accounts in commercial banks, which consider their business models to be risky. Ironically, Banco de Crédito del Perú (BCP – the largest Peruvian commercial bank by far) currently has a pilot project for cryptographic services underway in the Superintendency of Banking, Insurance and Private Pension Funds of Peru (SBS) regulatory sandbox, demonstrating the banking sector’s interest in entering the Web3 world.

The Sandbox Dilemma

The regulatory sandbox for financial services dates back to 2021, when SBS approved Resolution No 2429-2021. However, the SBS sandbox has only one participant to date: BCP.

The regulator’s main mistake was to restrict access to the sandbox to licensed entities, meaning that any FinTech or start-up faces an insurmountable bureaucratic wall, resulting in the BCP being the only participant. Nevertheless, the BCP launched the “CriptoCocos” project to validate services for the purchase and sale of crypto-assets such as Bitcoin and USDC.

Today, there is a draft regulation that aims to open the SBS sandbox to non-licensed entities such as FinTech companies, to allow them to test their business models, products and services in a financial operations environment controlled by the banking regulator. The pilot projects will last 18 months and be renewable for an additional 12 months. However, the participation of an entity or company in the sandbox does not constitute authorisation to operate within the systems supervised by the SBS.

If the draft regulation is approved, it will be a key milestone for FinTech companies – such as loan companies, currency exchange companies, factoring companies and leasing companies outside the scope of the Banking Act – to launch themselves into the regulatory sandbox while thinking outside the box to define their business models and/or services. 

Lending FinTech and VAT

Although it seems that the rules of the game are beginning to become more flexible for FinTech companies, there is a transaction cost, which is often deemed to be unjustified. For example, Value Added Tax (VAT) at a rate of 18% is applicable to interest raised from loans and financing granted by FinTech companies. On the contrary, interest earned in the context of a financial transaction carried out by a supervised company, such as a bank, is not subject to VAT.

Considering that the economic substance of transactions carried out by supervised and unregulated companies is basically the same (ie, I lend you money and in return you must pay me the amount borrowed plus compensatory interest or, where applicable, late payment interest), there is no reason to differentiate between them in terms of the application of VAT. Under the criteria adopted by the Financial Stability Board, the same regulation should apply to the same activity and the same risk. This means the VAT exemption is applicable to those FinTech companies that carry out lending activities.

Promoting favourable market conditions for financial technology, such as the exemption from VAT, will allow more than 80% of SMEs to access credit and more than 70% of adults to access direct credit instead of high-risk loans such as payday loans, according to COMEX Peru and the SBS itself.

Factoring: Financing for SMEs

One of the most obvious success stories in the Peruvian FinTech ecosystem is the case of factoring companies, with more than 100 such companies registered to date. Unlike in other jurisdictions, such as Chile, the success of factoring in Peru is due to a unique regulation that determines the obligation to register according to the size and economic muscle of those carrying out the activity, which is reasonable.Likewise, the participation of CAVALI, the Peruvian clearing house with which factoring companies are registered, allows this to be an efficient and safe activity.

Challenges for Crowdfunding in Peru

The Superintendency of the Securities Market (SMV) has proposed three areas for improvement to the current crowdfunding regulation. This is expected to attract a greater number of projects by raising the maximum amount of money per project, allowing some projects to be developed outside Peru, creating an environment for dissemination to facilitate liquidity in the transfer of securities, and allowing a crowdfunding company to act as a representative of debt securities holders. 

Like the SBS’s almost deserted sandbox, crowdfunding in Peru has only two fully operational companies (Inversiones.io and Prestopolis), and one about to start operations (Inversiones Neurona). Once the amendment is approved, more companies are expected to land in Peru, invest, and bet on a country that is opening up to innovation.