Amendments to Money Transfers Not to Apply to Georgian Emigrants
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, January 30
The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) says that recently adopted amendments to the Organic Law of Georgia on the National Bank, which envisages registration of persons who want to transfer money, do not refer to Georgian emigrants living abroad and ordinary users who send or receive money.
According to the amendment of December 23, 2017, persons who carry out money transfers have to register as the payment service providers in the National Bank. The registration deadline is July 12, 2018.
“The amendments concern the entrepreneurs and legal entities already registered in the National Bank, which are entitled to exercise the remittance services in accordance with the legislation. This change does not apply to users. This means that the changes do not apply to people who send money or receive money transfers,” the NBG press service stated.
According to the National Bank, the term - money transfer -has been abolished and all subjects will be obliged to register as payment service providers within 6 months.
In December 2017, the total amount of remittances received by Georgia amounted to $138.4million, a 16.3% increase compared to December 2016, according to the National Bank of Georgia.
In the same period money transfers abroad totaled $19.8m, a $1.6million increase from the previous year.
$45m or 32.5% of total remittances in December 2017 was transferred to Georgia from Russia last month followed by Italy $15.4 million and a Greece $15.1m. Next on the list are the United States ($13.1), Israel ($12.4m), and Turkey ($10m).
