“Uruguay is the ideal host for financial innovation”

Montevideo, “a city whose skyline looks out both on the Río de la Plata and the world,” in the words of digital economist Paolo Tasca, hosted the 11th edition of P2P Financial Systems (P2PFISY). Tasca, co-founder of the Exponential Science Foundation and creator of this international workshop, which since 2015 has brought together regulators, academics, and innovators in the sector, was responsible for opening the meeting. Over two days, the global workshop brought together central bankers, academics, technologists, and entrepreneurs from Latin America and other regions, with the support of the Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU), the Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences (FCEA) of the University of the Republic, and the Exponential Science Foundation.

“For a small country like ours, it is essential to have these workspaces, to discuss freely and to put ourselves at the forefront of knowledge,” said Julio Sanguinetti, director of the BCU, at the opening. From the FCEA, interim dean Carlos Bianchi underscored the significance of the meeting: “This event is a milestone because it crosses financial innovation with science and entrepreneurship capabilities.”

Paolo Tasca: Uruguay as a laboratory of trust

At the opening, Paolo Tasca explained why Uruguay was chosen as the venue for this edition. He highlighted the country’s stability, institutional framework, and progress in digital inclusion, stating that the choice “was not a coincidence but a deliberate decision.”

“Uruguay is the ideal host for this year’s edition of P2PFISY,” said Tasca at the workshop’s opening. He added: “Not only because of its progressive agenda in digital finance, but also because of the active commitment of the Central Bank and the FCEA to building inclusive and forward-looking monetary policies.”

For the economist, the country has the conditions to make it fertile ground for innovation. “It is a stable economy with low inflation and a suitable size to serve as a testbed. Here, the public and private sectors can work together to launch new models that can then be scaled up across the region,” he said.

In his review of Uruguay’s trajectory, Tasca highlighted milestones such as the 2014 Financial Inclusion Law, which promoted the digitization of recurring payments to households; progress in digital government, with the country jumping from 35th to 25th in the 2024 United Nations ranking; and the incorporation of the Toke fast payment system, launched in September 2024, which in the first half of that year had already recorded more than nine million instant interbank transfers, surpassing the total for 2023.

“Uruguay is not trying to catch up; it is setting the pace,” said Tasca. He stressed that “these achievements are necessary conditions for scaling up secure and inclusive digital finance.”

“Infrastructure is not optional; it is sovereignty. Countries that build robust and transparent systems will not only provide a service, they will be defining their monetary power in the 21st century,” he added.

In addition to conferences and keynotes, the workshop included the presentation of academic papers from various universities and international entities. Two Uruguayan research projects were given special recognition. The paper “Towards a New Credit Evaluation in the Fintech Era: Foundations for an AI-Based Alternative Scoring Model in Uruguay” by Noelia de los Santos and Joaquín Rubio won first prize at the meeting. Another paper presented was “Tax challenges for Uruguay in the tokenization of natural resources” by Melisa Ronchi, Flavia Fernández, and Ana Laura Calleja.

The debates were complemented by four thematic panels, moderated by FCEA professors Gabriel Budiño, Jenifer Alfaro, Flavia Fernández, and Inés Vázquez, who addressed key issues related to central bank digital currencies, open finance, and monetary sovereignty in Latin America. In addition, there was a lecture entitled “Uruguayan Tax & Accounting Perspective in Digital Economy and Virtual Assets,” given by Diego Tognazzolo, who offered a local perspective on the fiscal and accounting challenges of the digital economy.

The regulatory framework: certainty for investment

Patricia Tudisco, a Central Bank of Uruguay representative, offered what she defined in her presentation as a “map” of the path taken and the next steps in regulating crypto assets.

Her presentation, “The Central Bank of Uruguay’s approach to crypto regulation,” reviewed a process that began in 2021, when the BCU created an interdisciplinary group to analyze the phenomenon of virtual assets and their impact on the stability of the financial system. That work led to Law 20,345, passed in September 2024, which granted the Bank powers to regulate virtual asset service providers (VASPs).

“We started with warnings to the public (...), and then we realized that the Bank did not have sufficient powers, so we went for the law,” Tudisco recalled. As a result, in August 2025, the BCU put forward a draft regulation for consultation with capital, security, governance, and money laundering prevention requirements for those operating with digital financial assets.

The real scoop, however, came at the end of his presentation: the BCU proposed a legal adjustment to eliminate the current segmentation between financial and non-financial assets. “The board sent the Ministry of Economy a legal adjustment so that all VASP would be regulated, without segmentation by object,” Tudisco announced.

If approved, Uruguay will have a comprehensive regulatory framework. This will allow the travel rule to be applied to all transfers, bring stablecoin issuers under supervision, and align with the principle of “same activity, same risk, same regulation.” The message was clear: the aim is to close legal loopholes, meet international standards, and consolidate Uruguay as a regional benchmark in cryptoasset regulation.

An open future

Both Tasca and Tudisco emphasized that Uruguay not only ensures a stable and reliable framework but also positions itself as a country willing to take on a central role in designing the regional financial architecture.

“When investing, you look for a clear legal framework and stability. Uruguay is on the right track,” Tasca summarized.