CBN, First Bank, Western Union launch outbound remittance service

 The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) last night published a list of 2442 licensed Bureau De Change (BDC) firms which it said had complied with its new capital requirements of N35 million as at July 31, 2014.

Also yesterday, the CBN and Western Union Company in collaboration with First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) jointly launched an outbound remittance service in the country.
With the publication of the list of 2442 licensed BDC firms that have complied with its new capital requirements as disclosed in a document obtained from its website, the operating licenses of about 766 firms had consequently been revoked by the apex bank.  There were 3,208 registered BDCs in the country before the expiration of the deadline.

The CBN had in June announced a new minimum capital requirement of N35 million for the operation of BDCs in the country, up from the N10 million it was previously.
In order to ensure that the forex dealers comply with the new capital requirements, the CBN had extended the deadline to July 31, 2014. The forex dealers were previously given a deadline of July 15 2014.

The apex bank had also stated that interest would now be paid on the mandatory cautionary deposit of N35 million, based on banking industry savings account rate.
It among other requirements, also reviewed the mandatory cautionary deposit for BDCs upward to N35 million.

The regulator had pointed out that on the expiration of the deadline on July 31, 2014, that it would cease to fund any BDC that failed to comply with the new requirements, adding that “only BDCs that meet the new requirements would qualify to be engaged as agent by the licenced international money transfer operators for inward and outward transfer business in Nigeria.”
CBN, First Bank, Western Union launch outbound remittance service…

The newly launched outbound remittance service allows consumers to send funds in minutes via Western Union around the world. Before now, consumers in the country had only been able to receive funds via the service.

The service is currently being pioneered by First Bank while other accredited agents of western union are expected to join later.

Speaking at the launch in Abuja, CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele said the introduction of the service was in line with the apex bank's strategic policy direction to transform the payment system landscape and further simplify money transfer business in the country.

He said: “We are delighted that Western Union has taken the lead in providing outbound remittance services to Nigerians. Today's launch demonstrates the company's proactive step in taking advantage of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s vision of creating an enabling environment for the emergence of innovative and superior financial products that reduce transaction costs for Nigerians and give them a chance at living better lives.”

He said the initiative was targeted at remittances by individuals to dependants, children and wards abroad as well as person to person needs.

Under the new service for now, users are allowed a maximum of $2,000 per transaction, according to Emefiele adding that transactions will be scrutinized to avoid abuse of the facility for money-laundering.

He said the outbound option which is the first of its kind in the country was also aimed at providing alternative channel of foreign exchange transfer to serve the needs of small foreign exchange end- users and simultaneously reduce the amount of foreign exchange sourced from official forex window in the country as well as help conserve foreign exchange.

With the latest initiative, the CBN boss said users do not need to go to a bank or bureau de change (BDCs) to buy foreign currency in order to transfer money abroad.

Instead, senders are expected to take the Naira equivalent of the amount of foreign currency they wish to transfer to any of the over 5000 western union outlets in the country.

He said talks were ongoing with western union to engage well-structured BDCs to become western union agents so as to make the service accessible to more Nigerians.


Source Thisday