Unlike the previous government, the current Greek authorities have proposed to enable credit card payments as a form of transferring migration investment funds. This practice was previously banned as it tended to breach the capital control policy of China. Chinese investors are generally limited to $50,000 per year on payments in foreign currency. That said, the restriction has never been a real blocker. Over 57 thousand Chinese nationals paid over $44 billion for investor visas in the past, yet the quota was a well-known complication.
Last year, a Greek real estate investment firm was castigated for accepting investment funds through a POS terminal belonging to Greek banks within mainland China. Now the previously unauthorised practice is poised to become an official and appropriate policy.
Adonis Georgiadis, Development and Investment Minister of Greece, was one of the key advocates to the amendment. He stated that the prohibition on POS payments made an unwanted roadblock for Chinese investors.
The new policy will have a retroactive effect and cover electronic transactions from January 1, 2017.
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