Beyond the Houthis' closure of internal remittance networks
English - Sunday 22 September 2019 الساعة 03:39 pm
Aden – NewsYemen.net
The Houthi coup militia on Saturday evening suspended licenses for internal remittance networks and gave them a maximum of 23 and 24 September to liquidate their remittances to citizens.
The internal networks of financial transfers covered by the arrest warrant issued by the Central Bank of Sana'a, which is under Houthi authority, reached six networks: Star Plus, Al-Muheet, Dadia, Al-Imtiaz, Yemen Express, and Japanese.The militia considered it effective from 22 September.
According to the Central Bank of Houthi decision, the suspension of financial transfer networks was issued because of the repeated violations that have been repeatedly pledged not to repeat them, but one of the owners of one of the suspended networks, denied any irregularities.
The owner of the network covered by the arrest warrant, told "Newsyemen" that the Houthi militia wants to share the resources of the internal remittance fees belonging to the network, pointing out that the Houthi militia, did not have enough of what they take from us monthly and Exchange companies, we are threatened with bankruptcy.
He explained that the militia Houthi take monthly levies under the name of "war effort", and now wants half of the network resources from the fees of internal remittances, after the network raised internal remittance fees due to the rise in the dollar price, because the remittance fees are valued at the dollar.
He pointed out that the decision of the Central Bank of Sana'a, detrimental to the interests of citizens and exchange companies and offices, 95% of which depend on these networks in internal financial transfers, as exchange companies that have their own network of internal remittances do not exceed 5% of the total companies, offices and shops in Yemen.
In early August, exchange companies, bureaus and internal remittance networks raised their internal remittance service fees by 200%, causing public discontent with the large increase in remittance service fees.
The price of internal remittances service rose from 500 riyals for every 50 thousand riyals to 1500 riyals for every 50 thousand riyals, an increase of 1000 riyals, an increase of 200%.
Since mid-2018, the Houthi militia has opened electronic network points directly from the Central Bank of Sana'a to the accounts and regulations of banks and exchange companies at their main centers, allowing them to tighten and monitor the transactions and operations of accounting banks, and prevent them from dealing with the Central Bank in its headquarters in Aden.
