On February 9, President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko signed into action Ordinance No 2 which introduces an amendment to Ordinance No 1 of February 5, 1997 “On measures for establishing good order in foreign currency transactions.”

The new Ordinance abolishes the requirement for the natural persons wishing to buy a foreign currency to present their passport data for registration. Such registration requirement had been introduced in 1997 as a temporary measure motivated by the multiplicity of exchange rates in the country and by the need to prevent currency purchases by shadow dealers who would then resell the currency at higher exchange rates.