Mexican toll booths accepting U.S. cash again
McALLEN — Toll booths on the Mexican side of international bridges in the Rio Grande Valley are accepting U.S. currency again.
Most area bridges stopped accepting U.S. currency from northbound travelers for two days because Mexico’s Finance Ministry, known by its Spanish acronym SHCP, introduced new regulations intended to thwart money laundering by restricting the amount of U.S. cash that Mexican banks may receive.
The Finance Ministry generally prohibits the nation’s banks from conducting U.S. currency transactions for legal entities and trusts that are bank customers. However, under an exception to the rule, such customers based in or conducting most of its business within a tourist area within 20 miles of the U.S. border may deposit up to $7,000 in U.S. currency per calendar month. For individual bank customers, banks may accept up to $4,000 in U.S. currency per calendar month.
Legal entities, trusts and individuals who are not customers face even tighter restrictions on U.S. currency deposits.
The bridge payment measure was the result of a conflict between Mexico’s federal roads and bridges authority, known by its Spanish acronym CAPUFE, and the bank where it makes its deposits in dollars.
But that problem was resolved Tuesday, Jorge Espino Ascanio, a CAPUFE representative in Reynosa, said.
To combat money laundering, Mexico’s Finance Ministry limited cash deposits for individuals, companies and other entities. Those restrictions applied to CAPUFE, as well, but the federal agency received an exemption.
“Our money is clean — it’s legit,” a CAPUFE official said in Spanish.
Travelers affected by the temporary payment restriction at the bridges drove up to the toll booths only to learn that they must turn around if they did not have pesos.
New regulations do not restrict cash transactions in U.S. currency, such as wire transfers, Automated Clearing House payments, credit card transactions and traveler’s checks.
