KARACHI, Dec 26: Khanani & Kalia International has got the SBP licence to work as a foreign exchange company. This is the third company to have got this licence. NBP Exchange Company Ltd. and H&H Exchange Company Ltd. have already received the SBP licences and are set to start operations from January. KKI may also start working as an exchange company sometime next month.

“We have got the licence and will start working as an exchange company sometime in January,” KKI Director Ovais Kalia told Dawn. He said that his exchange company would begin operations with the existing eight branches of KKI — five in Karachi; two in Lahore and one in Islamabad.

Haji Haroon of H&H Exchange Company told Dawn that his company would positively start operations from January 1, 2003 with one branch located on I.I. Chundrigar Road Karachi. Sources in NBP said NBP Exchange Company Ltd. would also start operating from early next month but they did not specify the date.

NBP Exchange Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of state-run National Bank of Pakistan and is set to start business with a paid-up capital of Rs300 million. The company is headquartered at Shaheen Complex in Karachi but it is likely to start operations simultaneously from five cities including Karachi. The other four are: Lahore, Rawalpindi, Gujranawala and Faisalabad.

NBP Exchange Company, H&H Exchange Company and KKI Exchange Company are three out of the 10 exchange companies that have so far got the SBP licence to start operations. The other seven companies that have got an initial No Objection Certificate from the central bank but are waiting for the final nod are: (i) Dollar East (ii) Galaxy International (iii) Zarco (iv) Global Exchange Company (v) Universal Exchange Company (vi) Pak-Kuwait Exchange Company and (vii) Sheikh & Khawaja Exchange Company.

Foreign exchange companies that are being set up as part of a plan to phase out money changers. They will buy and sell foreign currencies in cash and will also make electronic transfer of funds. They are also permitted to buy and sell foreign exchange in the inter-bank market.