Cambios allowed to sell euros again

Last month the nation’s money exchange offices which are commonly referred to as cambios were given permission to sell euros again. But they may only do so under one condition: they are only allowed to sell euros to people who are going abroad. The maximum sum of money that the cambios can sell to each traveler is 2,000 euro.

In November 2016 a ban was imposed which prohibited the nation’s cambios from selling euros. They were only allowed to sell euros to commercial banks. Several cambio owners pointed out that the decision to partially lift the ban was made by the Central Bank of Suriname (CBvS). The cambio owners pointed out that they will keep an eye on all transactions to make sure that people do not misuse this opportunity. The cambios will check if the client has a valid passport and a plane ticket. Then they will take a closer look at the ticket to determine the destination. If it is determined that the client wants to go to a country with a visa requirement, the client will be asked to first obtain the visa before returning to the cambio to do business. The money exchange offices will then keep a copy of the passport, visa and the ticket of each person so that they can produce them in case of an inspection.

The Finance Ministry on November 27, 2016 issued a press release, indicating that several measures would be taken to regulate the foreign currency market. The measures were taken after consultations with the governor of the Central Bank of Suriname and the executives of a few big banks. One of the measures was aimed at only letting local banks trade euros. The money exchange offices were only given permission to buy euros which they were only allowed to sell to local currency banks.