Dr Irfaan Ali on Wednesday unveiled a package deal of reforms aimed toward tightening oversight of Guyana’s monetary and banking sector, with a specific concentrate on stabilizing the overseas foreign money market and curbing capital flight.
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The Head of State convened a high-level assembly with key stakeholders, together with Financial institution of Guyana Governor Dr Gobin Ganga, Guyana Income Authority Commissioner-Common Mr Godfrey Statia, and representatives of economic banks. He outlined 9 new Commonplace Working Procedures (SOPs) designed to enhance transparency, strengthen overseas alternate controls, and forestall abuse of the system.
President Ali famous that demand for overseas alternate has surged in recent times, prompting the federal government to inject unprecedented sources into the market. In 2024, US$332 million was offered to fulfill demand, in comparison with US$1.2 billion thus far in 2025, with one other US$160 million pending. He additionally flagged the fast rise in bank card use as an rising concern.
Bank card clearances jumped from US$91.3 million in 2023 to US$347.5 million in 2024, and have already reached US$252 million in 2025. The President stated authorities at the moment are profiling bank card exercise to find out whether or not private playing cards are getting used to settle enterprise transactions.
“We’ve additionally seen large development in bank card transactions,” Dr Ali stated. “We’re now inspecting that development, profiling that development to see whether or not private bank cards are used to clear enterprise transactions and in what quantity, as a result of that is essential for us to know.”
The 9 Measures
The measures introduced at this time embody:
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Clients requesting overseas alternate for imports should current a business bill to their financial institution earlier than launch of funds.
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Upon arrival of products, importers should submit the bill and Invoice of Lading to each the GRA and the financial institution for verification.
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Banks won’t launch foreign exchange if licensed invoices, Payments of Lading, and GRA compliance will not be submitted.
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Business banks should share invoices and Payments of Lading with the Financial institution of Guyana for cross-verification, with a brand new reconciliation system linking banks, GRA, and BoG data.
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Banks should guarantee private bank cards are used strictly for private transactions, not enterprise obligations.
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Entities concerned in related-party transactions or inflated invoicing designed to maneuver capital out of Guyana will face penalties.
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Anybody taking overseas foreign money out of Guyana in money should declare the supply of funds.
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Corporations registered underneath native content material legal guidelines within the oil and gasoline sector should keep native financial institution accounts, with overseas earnings remitted to these accounts. The legislation will likely be amended to implement this.
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A single-window post-clearing system will likely be established on the Central Financial institution to reconcile previous transactions between GRA, banks, and BoG earlier than approving new requests.
Business financial institution representatives expressed assist for the measures, noting they’d assist ease among the challenges at present confronted by the sector.
Minister of Public Service, Authorities Effectivity and Implementation, the Honourable Zulfikar Ally, additionally attended the assembly.
