Argentina’s Senate approved a sweeping rewrite of the central bank’s founding law on Thursday, September 24, 2026, solidifying the institution's role as a protector of financial capital. The vote, 46 to 22, sends the reform back to the Chamber of Deputies for final approval. On the same day, Argentina transferred approximately US$793 million to the International Monetary Fund as its first principal repayment under the current program.
If enacted, the Banco Central de la República Argentina will operate with a singular objective: preserving the peso’s value. This new mandate explicitly bars the bank from lending to the national government, the provinces, or the municipalities, effectively cutting off a crucial source of public funding.
Who Profits
The reform scraps the current charter’s broader list of goals, which previously included financial stability, jobs, and economic development with social equity. It removes the bank’s power to steer credit toward chosen sectors, dismantling tools past governments used to draw money from the bank, such as short-term cash advances (adelantos transitorios) and non-tradable IOUs (letras intransferibles) from the Treasury.
The central bank will no longer be permitted to buy government bonds when first issued, though it retains the ability to trade them on the open market at market prices for monetary goals. Profits derived from a weaker peso or a higher gold price, previously sent to the Treasury as dividends, must now remain within the bank’s capital. The bill’s explanatory note confirms that governments since 2002, including Javier Milei’s administration, have utilized this practice.
International reserves are declared immune from seizure by creditors, a direct protection for accumulated wealth. While old Treasury debts to the bank remain unpaid, a portion of the bank's yearly profit must now be directed toward settling these obligations. The bill also ends the president’s power to unilaterally remove bank officials and removes the Economy Ministry’s seat at board meetings, further insulating the institution from political influence.
President Javier Milei, who presented the reform in a national television address on July 30, celebrated the Senate’s approval on social media, declaring, “The end of inflation begins.” Senator Patricia Bullrich echoed this sentiment, stating the law is fundamentally about protecting the currency’s value. Opposition senators, however, warned that a single goal would neglect credit and growth, and objected to using reserves as collateral.
The State's Role
The Chamber of Deputies had previously passed the bill on August 26 by 144 votes to 102, with 9 abstentions. Senators revised the rules for removing the bank’s president or directors, requiring presidential decree with prior approval of an absolute majority of the Senate (37 of 72 votes), rather than a two-thirds vote in both chambers. Appointments will also require these 37 Senate votes, while terms remain at six years and are renewable. Senator Agustín Monteverde of Milei’s La Libertad Avanza confirmed that blocs had agreed to these revisions, which passed 66 to 2 with Peronist votes. In the same session, the Senate also enacted changes to the Zona Fría scheme, which subsidizes gas bills in colder regions.
Milei’s reform is not expected to immediately lower inflation. It sets long-term rules, not immediate price changes. For those who earn, save, or pay rent in pesos, the reform is presented as a long-term promise, yet it offers no immediate relief on prices, rents, or the exchange rate.
Debt Bondage
Argentina’s US$793 million principal repayment to the IMF on Friday, September 25, 2026, was 583.3 million special drawing rights (SDRs). This payment repays principal on an Extended Fund Facility, a longer-term loan repaid in twelve half-yearly slices, starting four and a half years after each drawing. Argentina drew SDR 7 billion, approximately US$9.5 billion, in March 2022. Interest and fees are billed separately, with Argentina having paid SDR 1.71 billion, about US$2.3 billion, in interest and fees from January to August of this year.
Argentina remains the IMF’s largest debtor, owing approximately SDR 42.6 billion, roughly US$58 billion, at the end of August 2026. This debt originated in 2018 under President Mauricio Macri’s government, which secured the largest loan in IMF history at SDR 40.7 billion, then about US$57 billion. The program ended in 2020 after Argentina drew SDR 31.9 billion. In 2022, under President Alberto Fernández, a new extended loan of SDR 31.9 billion refinanced the original debt. President Javier Milei’s government agreed to a third arrangement in April 2025, for SDR 15.3 billion, presented as US$20 billion, of which about SDR 11.5 billion has been paid out.
The Treasury funded the IMF repayment from its dollar deposits at the central bank, which stood at about US$2.23 billion on September 22. This process lowers gross reserves by the payment amount, though analysts state net reserves remain unchanged. Gross reserves closed at US$48.845 billion on Thursday, September 24, their lowest level this month. An IMF staff team arrived on Monday, September 21, for the third review of the 2025 program, checking budget and reserve targets. If approved by the IMF Executive Board, Argentina could draw SDR 636 million, about US$865 million, which the government plans to use to refill the Treasury deposits.
The next IMF bill, for SDR 636 million in interest and charges, arrives in early November. A second principal slice of SDR 250 million is due on December 24. On January 9 of next year, Argentina owes bondholders approximately US$4.3 billion on its Globales and Bonares bonds from its 2020 restructuring. The IMF’s own projections show Argentina’s payments reaching about US$7.7 billion in 2027 and US$9.6 billion in 2028.