DUSHANBE, February 17, 2016, Asia-Plus — Russian business daily
Kommersant
reported on February 16 that Tajikistan, which is a major market in the cash-transferring business in Russia and represents the second-largest destination for money wired overseas, intends to create a single clearing center for all remittances sent to the country.
According to
Kommersant
, the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) will create the center and require all transfers to go through its system.
Kommersant
reports that unnamed sources in the financial sector say that a 1 percent commission on all transfers is expected to be imposed.
Innovations in Tajikistan’s market will hit Russian money transfer systems, first of all, market leaders. The scheme of work will be as follow: the NBT will conclude contacts with the systems as principal and all accounts will go through its system and the NBT will control it, Kommersant reports.
Meanwhile,
EurasaiNet.org
reports that market leaders at the moment charge between 0.3 percent and 0.6 percent.
It is presumed that wire companies and the banks paying out the cash at the other end will come to some arrangement with the National Bank on how to distribute the earnings.
The model will completely invalidate any avenue for competition since clients will find themselves having to pay that 1 percent (or more) commission come what may. And it should probably be safely assumed that the National Bank will retain a healthy proportion of the fees for itself, according to
EurasiaNet.org
.
