SANTO DOMINGO. -The Monetary Board held an ordinary session yesterday, Thursday, corresponding to the month of September, in which it reviewed and approved the results of the modification of the Exchange Regulations, a process submitted to public consultation during the month of August 2025, with the purpose of promoting order and transparency in the exchange market.
The amendment pursued three fundamental objectives. First, to adapt the existing regulatory framework of the foreign exchange market. This will allow for the incorporation of a greater number of participants in the Central Bank's electronic foreign exchange trading platform, including foreign exchange intermediaries and other financial intermediation entities. This will mean that all foreign exchange purchase and sale transactions exceeding US$10,000.00 and EUR$10,000.00 must be reported to the Central Bank through the electronic foreign exchange trading platform.
In this way, the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic will have greater visibility over foreign exchange market operations, by capturing more complete information in real time on prices and volumes traded, in accordance with the principles of transparency, efficiency and effectiveness that underpin the exchange policy.
Secondly, guidelines for conduct applicable to all participants in the foreign exchange market were established, aimed at ensuring the best execution of foreign exchange operations, which implies that all market actors must operate in the best interest of their clients, guaranteeing the best prices, speed in the execution of their foreign exchange purchase and sale orders and transparency.
In practical terms, these new guidelines ensure that foreign exchange transactions are conducted at fair and transparent prices, preventing significant deviations from the market reference rate. These provisions align with international best practice standards, such as those contained in the Global Foreign Exchange Market Code of Conduct, the application of which will now also extend to foreign exchange intermediaries and other financial intermediaries.
This will mean that the margins between buying and selling foreign currency, in both the retail and wholesale segments, must be in line with market conditions, in accordance with international best practices.
Likewise, the Monetary Board ordered the Central Bank to sanction and suspend the foreign exchange operations of authorized participants through the electronic foreign exchange trading platform, who engage in practices contrary to current regulations , particularly those related to exchange margins, as well as any other breach of the standards of good conduct that affect the orderly functioning of the foreign exchange market or provisions related to the reporting of information through this system.
On the other hand, the measures adopted by the Monetary Board increase the capital requirements for operating as foreign exchange intermediaries and raise the requirement for additional equity reserves, based on the nature and volume of these entities' operations. These provisions strengthen the operational framework of these entities and promote a safer and more resilient foreign exchange market.
Finally, the measures approved by the Monetary Board are complemented by the other prudential measures adopted in March 2025, to mitigate exchange rate and credit risk in an environment of global uncertainty, determining stricter limits for net foreign currency positions, which were reduced to 25% of capital, as well as reducing the weekly increase of the same, from US$10 million to US$5 million.
