Currency Exchange Offices to Open in 2024, the Profit Margin Will Not Exceed 3%

Member of the Finance and Budget Committee of the National People’s Assembly, Kamal Belakhdar, expected that the profit margin of the currency exchange offices that will be officially opened in 2024 would not exceed 3%, according to the data that the MPs had previously received from the Minister of Finance and bank officials in previous meetings.

He explained that the file today is on the table of the Bank of Algeria, according to the minister’s recent response to MPs’ questions in this regard.

The exchange price of the euro and the dollar rose on Saturday to a record high at the level of the hard currency market in Port Said Square in Algiers, where the price of 100 EUR reached DZD 23.800 for sale and DZD 23.600 for purchase, while the price of 100 dollars reached DZD 22.000 for sale and DZD 21800 for purchase.

The member of NPA’s Finance and Budget Committee, Kamal Belakhdar, attributed the reason for the rise in the price of hard currency on the black market level during the last hours to four factors; the return of the import of less 3-year-old cars to a record in recent weeks, and the influx of a large number of Algerians to the Holy Sites to perform Umrah rituals, in addition to the increase of the reopening of imports for many materials that are experiencing scarcity in the national market, as importers heading abroad acquire part of their needs for personal dealings from the black market, and the approaching date of New Year celebrations, and consequently, a large number of those who go to spend New Year’s Eve celebrations abroad purchase hard currency from black markets in the capital and other wilayas of the country.

Belakhdar added that this rise has led to an increasing gap between the price of the dinar in the official national market, that is, at the level of the Bank of Algeria, and the parallel market, whether in Port Said Square in the capital or other black points for selling currency, which imposes the necessity of accelerating the release of laws and regulatory texts related to opening certified and regulated currency exchange offices according to the new monetary and banking law: “According to the statements that we received during the last period from the Minister of Finance, the opening of certified offices to exchange hard currency in Algeria will take place during the year 2024, and the profit margin will not exceed 3% and may be less than that.”

Belakhdar considers that the profit margin approved in exchange offices active abroad is sometimes equivalent to less than 1% and does not exceed 2%, which are approximately the same percentages that will be approved in Algeria, where the file is today on the table of the Bank of Algeria, which is supposed to announce the remaining details framing the operation soon.

The new monetary and banking draft law details the conditions and methods for establishing banks, currency exchange offices, service providers and sets a list of people prohibited from activity, namely those involved in corruption cases, those with previous convictions at home and abroad, and people who have previously faced bankruptcy.

In Chapter Four of the Monetary and Banking Law, starting from Article 88 to Article 103, the financial and monetary authorities determine the conditions and standards for opening banks and exchange offices under the heading “Licensing and Accreditation,” whereby the Council must license the establishment of any bank, financial institution, broker, exchange office, or provider of payment services, based on the results of an investigation, related to the observance of special conditions specified in Article 86 of the same law.