Mexican retail company Grupo Famsa has started accepting payments in bitcoin from customers via the payment processor BitPay.

The announcement about bitcoin payments appeared on the company's Facebook page:

Famsa specialises in selling household items which include furniture, mattresses, electronics, computers and appliances. The company has more than 420 stores across 78 Mexican cities and 37 cities in the states of Texas and Illinois, US. While customers can buy goods from Famsa in the US the delivery can be arranged to any location in Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala.

Customers can also apply for credit and the layaway programme online. Famsa collaborates with 290 bank locations under Banco Ahorro Famsa.

The news about Famsa came after an online marketplace MercadoLibre operating in 13 countries of Latin America introduced to the merchants a new payment option in bitcoins via its PayPal-like payment system MercadoPago.

Last month the Mexican Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) published a statement which places bitcoin under the same restrictions as cash: it cannot be used for any large transactions. The measure aims at prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing.

Aliona Chapel