The payment with electronic payrolls to retirees began in this eastern Cuban province. The measure replaces the paper checkbooks through which some 21,000 people received their pensions. 

Las Tunas, Cuba.- After receiving his monthly pension in one of the branches of the Credit and Commerce Bank (BANDEC), Luis Aguilera described the change as positive, since, he said, unlike the previous procedure, he now only has to present his Identity Card.

Amelia Oliva Ramírez brought her old checkbook to make sure that the bank control number was correct, in case there was an error with her identity card. "We had already heard the news," Luis López Pérez said at her side. "Now everything will be faster," he said.

Together with payment by magnetic cards, these transformations seek to broaden the scope of the computerization of the different procedures carried out by the Cuban population. However, the organization of the collection days by groups will be maintained to avoid unnecessary crowding.

The 4,100 pensioners affiliated to BANDEC in this province can collect their money at any of its branches in the country. In the case of those who collect at the Popular Savings Bank (BPA), which here in Las Tunas are 15,903 pensioners, they must do so at the branch where they have been doing so until now; while the 2,30 retirees who throughout the geography of Las Tunas carried out such operations in these properties will do so in an Exchange House (CADECA).

As the banking institutions and the Ministry of Labor and Social Security have insisted, the home service of the paying managers and the payments in the savings banks will continue active; but not the payments of pensions that took place in the stores for regulated products.