The Senate of the Republic approved the Digital Economy Law for Digital and Electronic Payments on October 20, 2026, with 73 votes in favor and 34 against, and sent the bill to the federal Executive for publication in the Diario Oficial de la Federación, according to El Economista. In the vote on specific articles, the tally was 72 in favor and 37 against.

The initiative, promoted by President Claudia Sheinbaum and previously approved by the Chamber of Deputies, seeks to expand the use of digital payment methods and gradually reduce the use of cash. According to Aristegui Noticias, the bill consists of 22 articles and five transitional provisions, and it allows the Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público (SHCP) to determine the sectors and activities in which digital payment is the only accepted method. This matters for Mexico because it affects millions of users, merchants and tianguis vendors who currently collect cash.

The text recognizes QR codes, NFC technology, debit and credit cards, direct debit and transfers, and it incorporates the CURP Digital and the Expediente Digital Ciudadano. It also obliges authorities at the three levels of government to enable the infrastructure to accept these payments, and it empowers Banco de México to issue provisions that standardize financial applications. Cash and checks will remain available during contingencies that interrupt digital systems.

During the debate, Morena's Manuel Huerta Ladrón de Guevara stated that the law does not require all operations to be conducted through digital means and that its implementation will be gradual. The opposition questioned the scope of article 13: PRI's Karla Guadalupe Toledo Zamora noted that it gives Hacienda the power to decide in which sectors digital payment will be the only option, and fellow PRI member Claudia Anaya Mota asked how it will be applied in a country with high informality and millions of people without internet.

The next step is the publication of the decree in the DOF; from that point on, any list of sectors issued by Hacienda will move to the center of the debate over how each line of business adapts to digital payments.

This article was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.