The subsidiary of United Bank Limited, combined with the Competition Commission of Pakistan’s (CCP) clearance, Wall Street Exchange Company and UBL Currency Exchange. United Bank Limited is the sole owner of M/s UCE, a Pakistani private limited company that was just created as a currency exchange corporation.On the other hand, WSE is a private limited business that began operations in December 2003 following the issuance of a license by the State Bank of Pakistan.
The main line of business for M/s WSE is facilitating remittances for both private citizens and corporate entities. The deal that has been approved involves M/s UBL Currency Exchange (Pvt.) Ltd (UCE) acquiring certain assets of M/s Wall Street Exchange Company (Pvt.) Ltd (WSE) through an Asset Purchase Arrangement (APA) and a Letter of Intent (LOI).
A merger in the cross-border remittance and currency exchange industry has received approval from the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP). Under the terms of the proposed deal, M/s UCE plans to purchase a number of M/s WSE’s assets, including real estate, personnel, business contracts, and necessary assets like computers, gear, and automobiles.
The appropriate product market for “Currency Exchange and Money Transfer” was determined by the CCP’s Phase I competition assessment. WSE has separate market shares in the currency exchange and money transfer markets, which CCP’s investigation further validated. These market shares, however, will be renewed as M/s UCE enters the pertinent areas for the first time.
It is important to note that the transaction complies with the State Bank’s regulatory role, which aims to control the currency exchange industry and stabilize exchange rates in order to maintain a fair and impartial approach to market integrity and competitiveness.
The banking regulator implemented a number of measures to regulate the foreign exchange industry last year. In addition to suspending the activities of the various currency exchange companies for violating the law, the watchdog devised a plan that called for banks to open new currency exchanges as well as for exchanges to buy out and merge with one another.
