The public debate on delinquency debt in Argentina reached a boiling point on Tuesday when a post on X detailing the issues racked up two million views.
The post was written by Matías Fernández, founder of the research firm Pública, who analyzed the data from loans and debt delinquency using microdata from the Central Bank’s debtors’ registry, which he later cross-referenced with the taxpayer rolls from tax agency ARCA.
The Herald has been tracking rising delinquency and its growing weight in public debate for months. In late June we reported that delinquency had hit record levels and followed up in mid-July with another article on how banks were skeptical about the government’s plan to relaunch lending, precisely because so many borrowers were falling behind.
A key point of Fernández’s post was the emphasis that Mercado Pago — the fintech company built by businessman and supporter of President Milei, Marcos Galperín — was “the best student, not the worst.”
He added that the company was carrying out “an ambitious exercise in financial inclusion” with “excessive caution about risk.”
