Additional Note to Circular 114-3 to money transfer houses
Summary: Additional Note to Circular 114-3 to money transfer houses of the Bank of the Republic of Haiti — an instrument published alongside circular 114-3 to money transfer houses, not the circular itself. Circulars are the operative prudential rules for supervised institutions, covering matters such as capital and liquidity requirements, credit-risk and governance standards, reserve requirements and foreign-exchange rules.
Key Findings
- The circular took effect and was partly suspended on the same day. Issued on 3 October 2022, the date Circular 114-3 entered into force, this note puts two of its obligations on hold for three months.
- The first suspension is the substantive one for remittance recipients: the requirement to make transfers into savings accounts only, in the first sentence of the second paragraph of section 1.1. Its suspension means transfers into dollar accounts continued as before for the period.
- The second concerns the distribution chain: the obligation imposed on transfer houses' sub-agents in the last paragraph of section 1.4, on the conditions for selling the foreign currency they obtain through their business relations with the transfer houses.
- The stated reason is capability, not policy. The note says the decisions give authorized transfer agents, banks and transfer houses alike, the additional time needed to develop and put in place the control tools that full application of Circular 114-3 requires.
- The note is signed by the Governor and applies to banks and money transfer houses together, so the suspension covers both channels through which remittances are paid out.
How to cite
Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH), 2022, Additional Note to Circular 114-3 to money transfer houses, https://www.brh.ht/wp-content/uploads/Note-additionnelle-No1-Circulaire-114-3.pdf