Since early March 2026, the name of a newly created company in Cuba has been circulating among U.S.-based remittance businesses. The company, Antilla Capital, presents itself as the country’s first private financial institution.

In a message signed by Maridiely Cabrera Moreno, who identifies herself as the company’s president, Antilla states that it is incorporated as a joint-stock company and has been approved by Cuba’s Central Bank.

Indeed, on February 24, 2026, Cuba’s Central Bank granted Antilla Capital a license—through Resolution 17—to operate as a non-banking financial institution. The license authorizes the company to manage digital payments and electronic transfers, as well as to “process and distribute remittances and carry out any other activity related to money transmission within the national territory.”

However, the ownership structure of such companies is not publicly accessible in Cuba. While incorporation documents are filed in the national commercial registry, that registry is not open to public scrutiny, making it difficult to trace the origin of Antilla’s capital.

Antilla is not the first entity authorized by Cuban authorities to handle remittances in recent months.

In February 2025, the government approved a Lithuania-based company owned by a Cuban national, reportedly linked to the private firm INGENIUS, to process remittances via cryptocurrency. The company, Ebioro, has since faded from view; its website is currently offline, and there is no evidence it ever became operational.

Later, in December 2025, the Central Bank granted a similar license to Cubamax, a Florida-based company. Unlike Antilla, Cubamax is not recognized as an independent financial institution and must operate through licensed Cuban intermediaries. Its license explicitly allows for cash delivery in both Cuban pesos and foreign currency.

Antilla Capital’s website provides few details. It lists a contact number in Spain, an email address, and a physical office in Havana’s Miramar neighborhood.

For now, the company says its only active service is remittance transfers through the platform Remmitte. It plans to expand into trading, cryptocurrency services, and contactless card payments. The site also offers potential clients the option to request a demo or speak with an advisor.

elTOQUE contacted the company through its listed channels but had not received a response at the time of publication.

In communications with potential clients, Cabrera Moreno claims the company can handle large transaction volumes with transparent, documented flows. She also says remittances could be delivered to recipients’ homes, paid out in cash through state-run exchange houses (CADECA), or deposited onto bank cards.

This last feature—cash delivery via CADECA—could represent Antilla’s main innovation. However, it remains unclear whether those payments would be made in foreign currency or Cuban pesos.

Despite these claims, Antilla’s offering has been met with skepticism. Remittance operators in Florida told elTOQUE they will need to assess service fees, speed, and reliability before determining whether Antilla can outperform existing informal channels.

Ric Herrero, executive director of the Cuba Study Group, noted that remittances to Cuba remain legal under U.S. regulations. The current disruption, he explained, stems not from a blanket ban but from sanctions imposed on Orbit, the Cuban government’s former designated payment processor, which was added to the U.S. State Department’s restricted list.

“A non-sanctioned payment agent could facilitate transfers,” Herrero said, “but Cuba would need to license such an entity. If the Central Bank were to authorize a private company to act as a remittance processor, it could reopen a formal channel. Still, market response would depend on key factors.”

Among those factors is whether remittances are delivered in hard currency. “If Antilla pays out in Cuban pesos instead of dollars or euros—even through CADECA—it’s hard to see widespread adoption,” Herrero added, citing the large gap between official and informal exchange rates and the chronic shortage of foreign currency on the island.

Antilla’s emergence comes amid ongoing negotiations between the Cuban and U.S. governments, reportedly including discussions about expanding Cuba’s private sector.

Since U.S. sanctions targeted state-run remittance entities such as Fincimex in 2020, informal channels for sending money to Cuba have proliferated.

These alternative systems often rely on intermediaries abroad who pay suppliers on behalf of Cuban entrepreneurs, while recipients on the island settle accounts in cash—usually in dollars or at informal exchange rates. This network has effectively diverted a significant flow of foreign currency away from state control.

Who Is Behind Antilla Capital?

With no public registry of business ownership in Cuba, identifying the individuals behind Antilla Capital requires piecing together information from international records.

Maridiely Cabrera Moreno, the company’s president, has been linked to several businesses abroad.

The earliest record dates back to 2011 in Ecuador, where she appeared as a representative of a retail company in Quito. That business closed in 2014.

In 2016, Cuban intellectual property records show her associated with a trademark application for “Café Presidentes,” which was later abandoned.

She is also listed as a director of two Panama-based companies: IP Cargo International S.A. and GestcoBCP S.A.

Another Cuban national, Armando Braña Díaz, appears in those same companies as president. In Cuba, Braña Díaz has worked since 2002 as a commercial advisor for the Spanish firm Guarconsa, which operates in the Cuban market.

Cabrera Moreno and Braña Díaz are widely known in Cuban business circles as a couple who jointly control the private company BC Suministros Industriales, which specializes in electrical services. The company is actively promoted on social media and operates a showroom in Havana’s Miramar district.

In Spain, Cabrera Moreno is listed as the sole administrator of GESTCO BC S.L., an investment and holding company that mirrors the name of its Panamanian counterpart. Documents suggest she and Braña Díaz each contributed 50% of the company’s capital. María Guardeño, president of Guarconsa, is listed as a legal representative.

The authorization of private actors in the remittance sector—alongside recent measures allowing private fuel imports and participation in parts of the healthcare system—signals a broader, if cautious, economic opening.

These moves come as Cuba faces its deepest economic crisis since the 1959 revolution, underscoring the government’s growing reliance on private initiatives to compensate for the state’s declining capacity.