A new informal money market has opened for business solely designed to deal with the marked, disfigured or torn currency that is being removed from circulation this week. For a 10 percent fee, the otherwise worthless marked currency will be exchanged. According to the president of the Dominican Federation of Businesses (FDC), Ivan Garcia, businesses must continue to accept payment in defaced currency, even while the commercial banks are no longer accepting this money. Another complaint is that ATM machines appear to be disbursing defaced currency on a regular basis. In Santiago, if a businessman needs money and is not willing to join the long lines at the Central Bank offices, there is a service in this new niche that, for a 10-percent fee, will do the waiting and exchange the currency. According to Central Bank sources, when this initiative was first taken last year, as much as 80 percent of the Dominican paper currency had been defaced. Today, according to these sources, it is less than 1 percent. FDC members will be meeting today to discuss this new currency market with officials of the Central Bank.
