The Minister of Finance, in exercising the powers granted to him by sections 4 and 5 of the Enforcement of Restrictive Measures on Transactions in case of Emergency Law of 2013, following a recommendation from the Governor of the Central Bank, issued tonight a Decree on foreign credit institutions.
This Decree shall apply for a sixteen day period starting from the day of its publication in the Official Gazette of the Republic.
For the purpose of the Decree “catalogue” means the catalogue of credit institutions compiled by virtue of section 3 of this Decree and published in the official Gazette of the Republic as an Annex to this Decree.
By virtue of sections 4 and 5 of the Law, following a recommendation by the Governor and with the consent of the Governor, the following restrictive measures are imposed on credit institutions that are included in the catalogue:
(a) All cashless payments or transfers of deposits/funds from a credit institution that is not included in the catalogue to an international customer of a credit institution included in the catalogue or to such a credit institution’s own account are considered as cashless payments or transfers of deposits/funds to accounts held abroad and are subject to the provisions of any other Decree issued under the Law.
(b) All cashless payments or transfers of deposits/funds from a domestic customer to an international customer of a credit institution included in the catalogue or to such a credit institution’s own account are considered as cashless payments or transfers of deposits/funds to accounts held abroad and are subject to the provisions of any other Decree issued under the Law.
(c) All cashless payments or transfers of deposits/funds from a credit institution that is included in the catalogue, for its own account or by the order of an international customer, are permitted and are not subject to any restrictive measure imposed under any other Decree issued under the Law.
(d) All transactions between a credit institution that is included in the catalogue and an international customer are permitted and are not subject to any restrictive measure imposed under any other Decree issued under the Law.
(e) All transactions between international customers are permitted and are not subject to any restrictive measure imposed under any other Decree issued under the Law.
(f) All transactions between a credit institution that is included in the catalogue, by the order of an international customer or for their own account, and an entity outside the Republic are permitted and are not subject to any restrictive measure imposed under any other Decree issued under the Law.
(g) Credit institutions that are included in the catalogue are prohibited from servicing domestic customers that maintain accounts with their Head Office or soliciting and obtaining new business from domestic customers or opening new accounts for domestic customers.
(h) All domestic customers are also subject to the restrictive measures imposed by any other Decree issued under the Law.
