Money exchanges reject Central Bank plea to cut transfer fees

Money exchange companies in the UAE have rejected a request by the central bank to slash fees on domestic cash transfers to just Dhtwo to bring them in line with fees charged on ATM transactions, a newspapers said on Monday.

Representatives of the country’s exchange firms told the central bank at a recent meeting that they cannot reduce such fees given their heavy expenses on branches through the UAE, employees, money transport and security services.

“During the meeting, the central bank proposed cutting fees on domestic transfers to Dhtwo but the exchange companies rejected the proposal,” Dubai-based Arabic language daily Emarat Al Youm said.

“They justified their refusal by the fact that it is not acceptable to have equal charges for ATM and cash remittances…in their formal response to the central bank, they said that ATM services are quite different from their services given the large expenses on their services, including cash transport and security, branch expenses and staff wages.”

Quoting changers who attended the meeting, the paper said the two sides agreed to hold more talks in the next few days to tackle the issue.

It quoted the changers as saying the companies agreed to maintain the current fee system, including Dh20 for a domestic transfer not exceeding Dh20,000 and Dh50 for transfers exceeding that sum. They also charge Dh75 on transfers of between Dh100,000 and Dh500,000 and Dh100 on those exceeding Dh500,000. Fees on transfers of more than Dhone million are set at Dh150.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.