Is it possible an exchange office to operate through an e-shop?
Is it possible for an exchange office in Bulgaria to carry out transactions with foreign currency by occupation in a cashless way through an e-shop?
The requirements of the Foreign Exchange Act are applicable to transactions with currency in stock by occupation. According to the legal definition, an exchange office is a trader which, by occupation, carries out transactions with currency in stock.
The applicable normative act, which is special in relation to the requirements for the activity of the exchange offices, is Ordinance No. 4 of 08.08.2003 on the terms and conditions for entry in the register and the requirements for the activity of the exchange offices. The Ordinance introduces a restriction that persons who carry out transactions with currency in stock such as an exchange office cannot perform by occupation currency exchange in a cashless way.
In this regard, insofar as non-cash payments are payments in which cash is not used, it follows from the above-mentioned restriction that for the purposes of currency transactions carried out by exchange offices, non-cash payments are not allowed. In this sense, carrying out transactions with foreign currency in a cashless way through an e-shop, which is accessed via the Internet using a web browser or a mobile application, is contrary to the requirements for the activity of exchange offices.
Moreover, in addition to the fact that cashless payments in physical objects are not allowed, by virtue of the stronger ground, carrying out currency transactions by occupation through an e-shop is also not allowed. In other words, the performance of activity as an exchange office should be carried out from a physical object, from which transactions with currency in stock are carried out only in a cash way.
