Dominican Republic's Monetary Board approves foreign exchange regulation changes with USD 10,000 reporting and Central Bank suspension powers

Dominican Republic's Monetary Board approved amendments to the Foreign Exchange Regulation after an August 2025 public consultation, expanding participation in the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic’s electronic foreign exchange trading platform and tightening reporting, conduct and prudential requirements for market participants. The changes also instruct the Central Bank to sanction and suspend foreign exchange operations of authorised participants that breach the revised rules. The amended framework brings currency exchange intermediaries and additional financial intermediation entities onto the Central Bank’s electronic platform and requires all foreign currency purchase and sale transactions above USD 10,000 and EUR 10,000 to be reported through it, giving the Central Bank real-time visibility on market prices and volumes. New conduct guidelines apply to all participants and are intended to ensure best execution for clients, including fair and transparent pricing and avoiding significant deviations from the market reference rate, with margins in both retail and wholesale segments expected to align with market conditions and international best practice such as the Global Foreign Exchange Code. The Monetary Board also increased capital levels to operate as a currency exchange intermediary and raised additional equity reserve requirements based on the nature and volume of each entity’s operations. The package is presented as complementary to prudential measures adopted in March 2025 to mitigate foreign exchange credit risk, including tighter net foreign currency position limits reduced to 25% of capital and a reduction in the permitted weekly increase in such positions from USD 10 million to USD 5 million.