Fincimex does not provide details about commissions or the procedure for delivering currency in banknotes at Cadeca offices
14ymedio, Havana, April 7, 2026 – The Financiera de Cimex (Fincimex) announced this Tuesday that remittances can be received in cash dollars through the state-run exchange houses (Cadeca). With several exclamation marks, the corporation, sanctioned by the U.S. and belonging to the conglomerate Grupo de Administración Empresarial (Gaesa) of the Armed Forces, stated on its social media: “Remittances in cash dollars! From anywhere in the world, in minutes! Now, at Cadeca, you can receive your remittances in cash in USD!”
In a phone call to Cadeca’s central office, an employee tells this newspaper that “they are still studying it” and directed them to contact Fincimex “about receiving cash.” The exchange houses, she asserted, have not yet implemented it. We have to wait.”
One would not say the same about Fincimex’s enthusiastic and brief statement. In it, it also indicates that “you could always, at your discretion, deposit them totally or partially into your Clásica account,” referring to the Cimex card, the tool created by Gaesa to capture dollars, which allows payment at gas stations and state stores in Cuba, as well as wholesale services, such as the purchase of cars and imports.
“Good news is always for you, because if I need cash from the same card they don’t give it to me, plus what they deduct from you for loading it”
If this option is chosen, they say they will offer “discounts and additional advantages,” although these are excluded from gasoline purchases. Asked about this by a user, the financial entity responds that those discounts will be, depending on the business, between 4% and 10%.
The payment of remittances in cash on the Island is nothing new and is done directly at the beneficiary’s home. In fact, companies such as Cubamax, Cuballama, Sendvalu, or Bagalso, recently authorized by the Central Bank, do this, although outside Gaesa and its subsidiaries, which are sanctioned by the United States.
Not only because of that but also because the lack of foreign currency in cash in the country is well documented, hundreds of comments on Fincimex’s post express their suspicions about the new measure. “Good news is always for you, because if I need cash from the same card they don’t give it to me, plus what they deduct from you for loading it,” says Ivan Betancour. The corporation replies by insisting: “It is good news for remittance beneficiaries to access a remittance in USD cash,” to which another commenter retorts: “That must be why the sale of USD in Cadecas is halted. Since January 28 that line hasn’t moved.”
“Now there is cash?” Livan Orelly asks with laughter, ending up in an exchange with Fincimex. “The service is activated based on the Clásica service and its proven capacity for collection,” the state entity assures, and Orelly presses again: “Proven capacity just like gasoline with Clásica and there is no gasoline?”
Users raise all the doubts that any ordinary Cuban might have. When does the service start? How much do they charge in commission? From which countries can those remittances be sent? What will the exact procedure be? are some of them. “The announcement is very incomplete,” summarizes an elderly woman from Centro Habana with a daughter in Spain. “If loading money onto the Clásica is already a headache, with the few places there are, the blackouts, the connection problems, I don’t want to see what it will be like to receive a remittance and put it on the Clásica in the same operation.”
Along the same lines, another Facebook commenter said: “If it’s a pension payment day, it’s pointless, because with the lines, the blackouts, and the crashes of Cadeca’s computer systems, the headache for that kind of action is immense.” Fincimex gave another optimistic response: “It will gradually expand to other networks.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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