EXCHANGE CONTROL SERVICES FOR CORPORATES

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has appointed Bidvest Bank as an Authorised Dealer in foreign exchange. An Authorised Dealer's function is to assist the SARB's Exchange Control division in administering exchange control to South African residents and businesses.

Full applications to the SARB's Exchange Control division need to be made through an Authorised Dealer like Bidvest Bank.

Bidvest Bank can assist corporate customers with a variety of different services:

• Dynamic hedging is available to corporate clients with anticipated foreign commitments. You can therefore secure your foreign exchange rate up to six months in advance.
• Bidvest Bank can authorise an annual omnibus allowance for a business’ travel purposes up to R10 million or facilitate an application to the South African Reserve Bank for a value greater than R10 million. Bidvest Bank can facilitate applications for direct foreign investments or corporate acquisitions to overseas companies.
• Bidvest Bank also assists with applications for royalties, dividends, insurance and professional fees.
• Customer Foreign Currency (CFC) accounts for corporate clients can be opened for clients by Bidvest Bank for trade and set-off purposes. These accounts can be opened in US Dollars, Euros or British Pounds.

• Voluntary Disclosure Program
  Issues with Exchange Control? Bidvest Bank can assist you.
  Find out more
  
  
• Hedging strategy
  New announcement regarding dynamic hedging.
  Find out more
   
• Import payment facilitation
  As an intermediary, Bidvest Bank can facilitate financial transactions that need to be made if your business decides to import goods from an overseas supplier.
  
  
• Export payment facilitation
  If you are exporting goods from South Africa and the value of the goods exceeds R50 000, the SARB's Exchange Control division must be informed. As an Authorised Dealer, Bidvest Bank can facilitate this reporting and assist with drawing payment from your overseas customers.
  
  
• Customer Foreign Currency (CFC) accounts
  • A Customer Foreign Currency account is designed for South African businesses with offshore trading liabilities, i.e. companies that are involved in import and/or export transactions, as well as service entities (shipping agents, freight forwarders and marine insurance brokers) that need to make foreign currency payments.
  • CFC accounts can be held in the following currencies: US Dollars, Euros, Great British Pound and Australian Dollars,
  • CFC accounts are subject to the SARB's corporate exchange control regulations.
    
    
• Omnibus allowance
  • The SARB's current exchange control limits (discretionary allowance) for South African residents is a maximum of R1 000 000 per calendar year (1 January to 31 December) for adults and a maximum of R200 000 per calendar year for those residents that are under the age of 18.
    
    
  • In the case of an individual travelling on behalf of a business, situations can arise when this R1 000 000 allowance is exceeded. As an Authorised Dealer, Bidvest Bank can assist by extending the allowance by up to R2 million for your business purposes. For more information on this facility, please call Bidvest Bank's customer call centre on 0860 11 11 77.
    
    
• Other exchange control-related queries