Reducing administrative burden and speeding up granting of licenses
Willemstad/Philipsburg — The Centrale Bank van Curaçao en Sint Maarten (CBCS) will introduce a revised foreign exchange regulation on October 1, 2024. The revised regulation will reduce the administrative burden of the licensing process and speed up the granting of foreign exchange licenses. ‘The CBCS has calculated that the reforms will reduce the number of foreign exchange licenses to be granted on an annual basis by about 50% without compromising an effective control of the foreign exchange reserves,’ stated executive director, Dr. José Jardim.
The foreign exchange regulation is a practical elaboration of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Regulation for Curaçao and Sint Maarten (Regeling Deviezenverkeer Curaçao en Sint Maarten), including instructions for foreign exchange banks regarding foreign exchange transactions, an overview of capital transactions that require a license, publications of general licenses and exemptions, and regulations and guidelines for the reporting of foreign exchange transactions by the foreign exchange banks to the CBCS.
The main reforms are:
- increase of the transaction limit from which a foreign exchange license is required from NAf.150,000 to NAf.500,000;
- elimination of the foreign exchange license for exceeding an annual limit of NAf.250,000 for transfers to an own foreign bank account by natural persons (replaced by a license requirement for transfers of NAf 500,000 or more);
- elimination of the foreign exchange license for NAf-loans extended by foreign exchange banks to non-residents;
- elimination of the foreign exchange license for exceeding a balance of NAf.250,000 on non resident NAf-accounts with foreign exchange banks (replaced by a license requirement for transfers abroad of NAf 500,000 or more); and
- a general foreign exchange license to residents to provide guarantees and securities to non resident creditors (for eventual payments abroad resulting from these guarantees and securities, a foreign exchange license is required for transaction amounts of NAf.500,000 or more).
As of October 1, 2024, all applications for a foreign exchange license must be sent to the CBCS through the intermediation of a foreign exchange bank. This will guarantee adequate assistance of customers with transactions that require a foreign exchange license, safeguard the integrity of foreign exchange transactions, and facilitate the introduction of an online application for foreign exchange license requests.
As part of the reforms, foreign exchange banks will soon be able to submit foreign exchange license requests through the reporting web portal of the CBCS. Until then, the current foreign exchange license request forms can be downloaded from the CBCS website.
The Foreign Exchange Regulation 2024 can be downloaded from the CBCS website through https://www.centralbank.cw/legislation-guidelines/foreign-exchange-regulations.
