Two-year moratorium on money exchange licence: Central Bank

Muscat: Oman’s central bank on Sunday decided to continue its moratorium on licensing of new money exchanges for another two years, until the end of 2017. This is due to saturation in the domestic market.
The board also approved a request from Bank Muscat to open a representative office in Tehran, said a Central Bank of Oman release. These decisions were taken at the central board of governors meeting, which was held under the chairmanship of Dr Ali bin Mohammed bin Moosa, deputy chairman of CBO’s board.
The board at its meeting approved the application of Wasel Exchange to acquire the operations of Musandam Exchange. The board also agreed to permit finance and leasing companies to accept deposits from corporates only, based on certain conditions.
It reviewed the various issues on the agenda of its meeting, including the Economic and Financial report upto December 2015, as well as the activity report of CBO’s departments during the period under review.
The board reviewed the actions taken by the Central Bank of Oman and licensed banks operating in Oman with regard to the financing of small and medium enterprises. In addition, the board endorsed the audited accounts of Central Bank of Oman, deposit insurance fund and pension scheme of Central Bank of Oman by December-end.