Buenos Aires, December 6 -- The first meetings of the Federal Forum for a Debt Relief Policy left a unified conclusion: the advance of household indebtedness in Argentina has become a structural phenomenon, amplified by an economic scenario marked by cuts, loss of rights, and absence of public policies.
According to what Argentina News Agency was able to learn, the event counted with the participation of representatives from all provinces, social organizations, teachers, caregivers, and workers in the care economy. The two days —one virtual at the national level and another in-person in Buenos Aires— exposed what the organizers described as "painful, repeated, and coinciding narratives".
The common axis was the denunciation of abusive practices by the financial system as a whole: public and private banks, financial entities, virtual wallets, and fintech platforms, which today operate as "engines of over-indebtedness and the daily harassment of families," they concluded during the event.
In the testimonies, scenes of illegal collections, threats, telephone pressures, and persecution even of family environments were repeated, a repertoire that goes beyond what could be thought of as individual decisions.
In this context, sociologist Luci Cavallero synthesized the diagnosis: "The most serious thing is that different financial entities —from banks to virtual wallets— are operating with the same usury logic as private lenders."
According to the study, 88% of households are in debt. The financial pressure is amplified by the multiplication of creditors: cards, banks, virtual wallets, credit apps, fintech, financial companies, and family members, many times "without clear information on interest rates," the report warns.
More than half of the families received collection calls, a data that coincides with the complaints heard in the meetings, where it was again pointed out that harassment practices also reach households with high levels of dependency.
Emotional deterioration appears as one of the most widespread consequences: 87% of those surveyed report anxiety, anguish, insomnia, or physical stress, a picture that was repeated over and over again in the testimonies.
The meetings and the report leave a message that runs through all the material: the absence of public policies not only deepens inequality but also exposes families to the action of a financial system that operates "with usury and pressure logics, without offering relief mechanisms".
