After being disconnected by the global payment processor VISA, CIBanco is facing problems with its cards, a situation that has severely affected postgraduate scholarship recipients abroad from the Ministry of Science, Humanities, Technology, and Innovation (Secihti).
This follows the U.S. Treasury Department’s allegation that CIBanco engaged in money laundering-related transactions.
Since Sunday night, postgraduate scholarship recipients studying in different countries have posted on social media their concerns about the cards they receive their scholarships with, since, when disconnected from VISA, they cannot withdraw money from ATMs or make purchases in establishments.
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The situation worsens since CIBanco does not allow electronic transfers, so the only way to collect money is at branches, which are only located in Mexico.
“Students abroad with scholarships from the Secretariat of Science find ourselves helpless, without a monthly deposit and with frozen accounts, since our scholarships are deposited through CIBanco,” Jesús Vázquez, a doctoral candidate in Chemical Engineering who lives in London, wrote in X.
Brenda Valderrama, Secretary of Outreach at the UNAM Institute of Biotechnology, told this newspaper that 1,800 graduate students are affected by this problem.
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“Since 2014, it had already been decided to use this CiBanco account to deposit scholarships. It makes a lot of sense because it’s an unusual account, where you can deposit in any currency and withdraw in any other currency, meaning there’s no exchange rate,” Valderrama explained.
Despite the situation, she explained, the scholarship recipients considered it a good account to maintain and access their support. However, following the warnings issued by the US Treasury Department, foreign accounts cannot be used for any transactions.
“This account has the characteristic that you cannot make transfers, deposits, or transfer payments to other banks. You can only withdraw money by card. As of Sunday, they were unable to withdraw money. They thought it was temporary, but they have since been notified that it is permanent,” the academic explained.
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Valderrama added that this is a problem that affects all Secihti scholarship recipients in different countries. “The 1,800 are scattered everywhere, obviously the United States, Canada, and England are the most common places, but they are spread all over the world, and there are 1,800 children who today don’t have anything to eat, they don’t have money to pay their rent, and who knows how this will be resolved.”
According to Brenda Valderrama, the Ministry of Science has contacted the affected scholarship recipients, but they still haven’t found a short-term solution since the payment corresponding to July has already been dispersed but cannot be used.
“The situation is very complicated because the payment has already been made; it’s no longer the Ministry’s responsibility, it’s no longer the government’s. The bank isn’t denying it. What they’re telling them is to come to Mexico for it, to come to the branch, and withdraw the cash in pesos.”
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This proposed solution is absurd, the researcher concluded.
“They can’t come, that is, they can’t afford a plane ticket to withdraw the scholarship money, and on the other hand, the government can’t redeposit it for them. In other words, the government can’t solve it without committing a serious error, which is the duplication of allocation of resources.”
The Social Communications Department of the Science Secretariat was asked about the problem, but they responded that they are working on an official position on the issue.
As of press time, the position had not been received.
Source: eluniversal
