Central Bank of Cuba would supervise proposed private corporate banks under parliamentary banking and foreign exchange reforms

During an extraordinary session of Cuba’s National Assembly, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero presented proposals for a broad overhaul of the country’s banking and financial system, with the Central Bank of Cuba positioned as supervisor of a possible new private corporate banking segment. The package also includes non-bank financial institutions for microcredit, changes to the foreign exchange and remittance markets, successive devaluations of the national currency, tax reform and a shift in price-setting policy. On the financial side, the proposals would remove restrictions on foreign-currency payments between foreign suppliers and Cuban counterparties, update interest rates and introduce new financial products and digital platforms. They would also raise transfer limits between natural and legal persons and expand the official foreign exchange and remittance markets to non-state actors through private exchange houses, a digital foreign exchange market and foreign-currency auctions, while warning that companies unable to operate under the devaluation path could face liquidation. The tax proposals include applying value-added tax to certain economic chains with reduced rates in specific sectors, generalizing electronic invoicing and bank-based commercial payments, revising the progressive personal income tax scale and increasing the exempt threshold to the average wage at the end of 2025, and reactivating a simplified regime for lower-complexity activities. Separate proposals would decentralize price approval powers and move away from a purely cost-based pricing model toward one shaped by market conditions.