Head of the Bureaux de Change Union sent a letter to economic officials, asking for reform in laws for bureaux de change operation and leniency toward the bureaux, after the central bank’s deadline to unauthorized shops for registering with the central bank to obtain license ended on Wednesday.
Abbas Masoudi complained against bureaux de change supervisory regulations’ contradictions with the general trade law.
The central bank revised foreign exchange regulations last August. The bank lowered minimum requirement for owning a bureau de change to encourage shop owners to register with the bank, while setting a deadline for registration.
It also abandoned a two-tier system whereby it reserved foreign exchange transfer services to larger bureaux.
Under the system, smaller shops’ activities were limited to trading foreign exchange and precious metals.
However, many technical aspects of the new regulations have come under fire by bureau owners.
After the introduction of the new regulations, the central bank gave a 12-month deadline to the 1,000 unauthorized shops to to apply for an operating permit, by meeting the bank’s minimum requirements and disclosing their books.
Currently, there are over 1,400 bureaux in Iran’s foreign exchange market, but only 428 are certified and regulated by the central bank, latest statements by the bank show.
