Atameken did not support tightening of exchange requirements
The Atameken NCE RK summarizes business proposals for new rules of exchange operations with foreign currency in cash.
Remind that the draft resolution of the Board of the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Amendments and Additions to the Resolution of the Board of the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated April 4, 2019 № 49 "On Approval of the Rules for the organization of foreign currency exchange operations in cash in the Republic of Kazakhstan" stipulates the following amendments:
1. Authorized organizations (exchange offices) should increase their authorized capital up to 100,000,000 tenge. According to the current version, 30 million tenge for exchange offices in cities of national importance, 20 million tenge - for urban exchange offices and 10 million tenge - for regional ones.
2. The exchange offices will have to ensure the availability of money in tenge or foreign currency in their bank accounts in the amount of 20% of the charter capital (additional reserve).
3. When exchanging any amount, the customers will need to provide information about passport data, IIN, and place of residence (today these requirements are valid only for transactions over 500,000 tenge).
4. Changing the mode of operation of the exchange offices from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Currently, the work regime of the exchange office is regulated by the owner.
The Atameken NCE RK sent to the National Bank the negative expert opinion based on the presented arguments.
The activity of the foreign exchange bureaux is not related to the attraction of money from third parties. Entrepreneurs warn that a significant increase in the requirements for the authorized capital will lead to mass closures of most exchange offices, reduce competition and create the risk of monopolization of the foreign exchange market.
At the same time, the obligation to reserve 20 percent of the amount of the authorized capital will freeze the 50 billion tenge in the accounts of entrepreneurs, create a deficit of working capital for exchange offices, but will not affect the availability of services. Accordingly, we believe that the strict requirements for capitalization and reservation of funds for these organizations are inappropriate.
The requirement to specify the place of residence is a significant inconvenience for customers. If other personal data can be obtained by the employees of the foreign exchange office from ID or passport, it is impossible to verify the residence address.
Decreasing the threshold of the transaction, when it is necessary to verify the documents, will reduce the speed of service, but will not reduce the demand for currency among the population, as well as the restrictions on the working hours of exchange offices from 10 to 19-00. In general, additional barriers for the business of legal exchange offices may create an alternative shadow market, where there will be no need to specify passport data, there will be no restrictions on working hours, with the corresponding official and unofficial exchange rates.
The National Chamber believes that the measures proposed by the project will not lead to the results announced by the developers, but will create serious barriers for businesses operating in this market segment and inconvenience for the population.
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