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**Argentina: Bubble Bursts as Non-Recoverable Loans from Virtual Wallets Double** Published January 31, 2026 / By Press Added to the record level of indebtedness is the expansion of non-recoverable defaulters. Wages have not recovered and the situation for families is distressing. The financial situation of Argentine households is going through one of its most delicate moments in recent years, marked by a record level of indebtedness with virtual wallets and non-bank lenders. This is revealed by a report from the consultancy EcoGo, based on official data from the Central Bank, which shows a strong deterioration in the payment capacity of families and accelerated growth in delinquency within the non-traditional financial system. According to the survey, accessed by the Agencia Noticias Argentinas and published by the newspaper *Clarín*, Argentine families now dedicate an average of 33% of their monthly income solely to repaying debts contracted with fintechs and digital platforms. This is the highest percentage recorded in the historical series and a clear sign of the growing weight this type of financing has in the daily economy of households. The outlook becomes even more worrying when considering total indebtedness, which includes both traditional banking and the non-bank system. In this case, the level of household debt is equivalent to 140% of their monthly income, reflecting a situation of generalized financial stress, in a context of wages lagging behind the cost of living and inflation that, although it has decelerated, continues to leave deep scars on purchasing power. One of the most alarming data points in the report is the jump in the number of loans considered "non-recoverable"; that is, those with more than a year in arrears. In just twelve months, this indicator rose from 2.6% to 6.4%, implying that the proportion of debts that, in practice, have little chance of being collected has doubled. **Rising Debts and the End of the "Liquidity Effect" on Loans** The EcoGo study, supported by Central Bank statistics up to November 2025, indicates that 21.4% of debt with the fintech sector presents some type of payment irregularity. This rate tripled compared to the previous year, when it stood at 7.4%, confirming the accelerated deterioration of the non-bank segment. In nominal terms, the impact is compelling: of the 12.6 trillion pesos lent by the non-bank financial system, approximately 2.7 trillion pesos are in arrears or with serious collection difficulties. The explosive growth of these figures reflects not only a greater dependence on digital credit but also the fragility of the real incomes of a significant part of the population. "Many people who have access to formal credit cannot make it to the end of the month and resort to alternative mechanisms. During recent years, installments were eroded by inflation; now that no longer happens," explained Marina Dal Poggetto, director of EcoGo, to the cited newspaper. According to the economist, the deceleration of inflation exposed the structural lack of payment capacity of many households, which had sustained their consumption through increasing indebtedness. Although the strongest impact is observed in fintechs and non-bank lenders, financial tension is also beginning to be felt in the traditional banking system. Delinquency on personal loans reached an unprecedented level of 11%, while on credit cards it reached 8.4%, multiplying sixfold compared to 2024. However, in the banking sector, the deterioration is somewhat lower, partly due to the widespread use of automatic debit as a collection mechanism. The report concludes that without a sustained recovery of real incomes, household indebtedness will continue to be a source of vulnerability for the economy, with special impact on lower-income sectors, which find in virtual wallets a fast but increasingly risky financing route.

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