DIY Currency Exchange

Is it legal in Taiwan for an individual to publicly offer to exchange one currency for another so both parties can avoid being nicked by the banks? Say RMB for US dollars? My understanding is that if I want to make this conversion in Taiwan thru official channels I’ll need to convert RMB to NTD and then to USD and the transactions fees add up. Much simpler if I can just exchange at the official conversion rate with someone who has dollars.

I can’t give you a definite answer as to ‘Legal.’ Seriously doubt it is though. Banking here is overly regulated, and unprofitable.

But there is opportunity to develop a business changing money, I think. Forget RMB though and look at the Philippine Peso. The rates charged for NTD/Peso cross both in Taiwan and Manila are absolutely insane. I recall the spread being something like 15% … happy to stand corrected. But I certainly felt raped. Feel bad for all those workers who are unknowingly also taking it where the sun don’t shine.

Just network among the Filippino community in Zhongshan on Sundays and perhaps you can establish a solid clientele. You might also canvas people at the airport checking in for flights.

[quote=“Paniolo”]I can’t give you a definite answer as to ‘Legal.’ Seriously doubt it is though. Banking here is overly regulated, and unprofitable.

But there is opportunity to develop a business changing money, I think. Forget RMB though and look at the Philippine Peso. The rates charged for NTD/Peso cross both in Taiwan and Manila are absolutely insane. I recall the spread being something like 15% … happy to stand corrected. But I certainly felt raped. Feel bad for all those workers who are unknowingly also taking it where the sun don’t shine.

Just network among the Filipino community in Zhongshan on Sundays and perhaps you can establish a solid clientele. You might also canvas people at the airport checking in for flights.[/quote]

I was hoping that some reputable, dollar denominated chap who happens to be in need of RMB would read between the lines and PM me. I don’t need my stash of RMB anymore because it’s just too difficult these days for an American to arrange for a visa to enter the PRC and do business.

What does legality have to do with anything in this place? Who reports their private tuition fees? Who drives within the speed limit, or obeys red lights? What is legal is what they can catch you for, or rather, what they can catch you for and make stick. What you don’t get caught for is legal.

I think the main thing would be volume. If you were doing major, major transactions (either individually, or collectively), then someone might notice, especially if you went to the bank each month and wanted to buy large quantities of a foreign currency, or you wanted to deposit your own huge profits. Having said that, you could probably get around it by simply having several bank accounts. If you were getting 2,000 USD each month from each of four or five different banks, I don’t think it would be a problem. No one would suspect you of money laundering or being engaged in drug dealing.

The main problem, I suppose would be getting large enough volumes of foreign currencies without going through NTD. In the West, I believe there are laws saying you can’t carry more than about 10,000 USD without declaring it when you go through an airport. Obviously, if you did declare it, then they’d want to know why you wanted to take, eg. 30,000 USD rather than transfer it from one bank to another. Obviously, if you didn’t declare it, you’d be in deep trouble if you got caught, and they quite possibly would catch you with x-ray machines. Another worry is that you don’t want to be carrying that kind of cash on you anyway in case you lose it or get robbed. At less than 10,000 USD, it’s hardly worth doing runs to the West anyway because the airfares would cost too much, unless this was incidental to some other business you had in going to the West.

Thus, if you’re talking about left-over cash from a holiday, no one here is really going to care if you’re exchanging it without NTD in the middle. However, if you’re talking about big quantities of two foreign currencies, it may be possible to secure enough of one (though not likely, surely), but probably not both.

EDIT: Ah, I just saw the latest post. I understand now. Still, if you have a fairly sizable stack of RMB, then the problem with the 10,000 USD law still stands, unless you spread it over several holidays to the U.S.

Why all the mystery dude? Just be clear from the start, and you won’t waste everyone’s time.

Why all the mystery dude? Just be clear from the start, and you won’t waste everyone’s time.[/quote]
Well, I thought it was obvious. . . .