Central Bank sets regulations to avoid currency manipulations

New rules have come into play for currency exchange street vendors in Georgia to ensure customers are better protected from currency-related manipulations.

The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) set new rules for local currency exchange booths yesterday.

From now on the currency exchange booths will have to provide information about the currency exchange rate and their commission fees, if any.

Recently some currency exchange booths have manipulated the foreign exchange rates. In order to avoid such incidences and protect the rights of our customers we are making an importance amendment concerning currency exchange booths,” said NBG.

The Bank explained the new regulation was applied to the registration process of new currency exchange vendors.

Currency exchange booths are now obliged to give full information to customers about the currency exchange rate, commission fees and fixed interest rates. A fixed interest rate is a currency rate which is defined by currency exchange offices. The difference between buying and selling the currency usually exceeds three percent," said NBG.

Furthermore, the new rules also determined it was now obligatory customers and the service provider to sign a receipt after completing a currency exchange.

This will help the customer to check once again the conditions of the currency exchange,” said the Bank.

If street vendors do not provide the customers with such information, they will lose their license and will not be able to apply to the NBG to reinstate it for two years.