Sending money to Trinidad and Tobago: the rule is about who, not why

Whether money sent to Trinidad and Tobago is family support or payment for something makes no difference to the law that governs it. Act No. 10 of 1993 repealed the whole of Part II of the Exchange Control Act, the Part headed "Payments". The rule that survived asks who a person may buy or sell foreign currency with inside the country, and asks nothing about the purpose of the payment.

Key Takeaways

• Act No. 10 of 1993 repealed the whole of Part II, "Payments", sections 11 to 14 of the Exchange Control Act, Chapter 79:50.
• Section 6(1) survived. It turns on the counterparty: inside Trinidad and Tobago a person other than an authorised dealer may deal in foreign currency only with an authorised dealer, or with the Bank's permission.
• The Central Bank's public notice of 10 September 2025 cites section 6(1) and lists, as at 31 August 2025, 13 authorised foreign exchange dealers and 4 Bureaux de Change.
• The reporting figures are amounts: TT$50,000 for large-transaction reporting under Legal Notice 356 of 2019, and TT$6,000 as the wire-transfer trigger.
• The Proceeds of Crime Act still prints TT$95,000 at section 55(3C), and the copy the Financial Intelligence Unit hosts is stamped unofficial and updated only to 30 June 2013.

Does it matter whether the money is family support or a business payment?

Under the Exchange Control Act it does not, and the reason is a repeal that happened more than thirty years ago.

The Exchange Control Act is Chapter 79:50, enacted as Act 24 of 1970. In its original shape it carried a Part devoted to payments. Act No. 10 of 1993 removed that Part in its entirety, sections 11 to 14, and took with it the surrender machinery at sections 7 to 10, Part III on securities, further operative sections and three Schedules.

That answer arrives structurally rather than by interpretation. There is no statutory distinction by the purpose of an inbound payment, because the Part that regulated payments no longer exists. A trade payment and money from a relative meet the same test.

An absence is an awkward finding to act on, so the rest of this guide is about what replaced it.

Section 6(1), the rule that survived

Section 6 survived, and it is drafted around who a person transacts with.

The operative subsection reads: "Except with the permission of the Bank, no person (other than an authorised dealer) shall in Trinidad and Tobago, buy or borrow any gold or foreign currency from, or sell or lend any gold or foreign currency to, any person other than an authorised dealer."

Two features of that sentence carry the weight. The first is the test it applies, the identity of the counterparty. The second is what it omits: no word about the reason for a transaction, the relationship between the parties, or the character of the underlying obligation. The alternative the subsection offers is the permission of the Bank, which again attaches to a transaction.

So a remittance from Australia and a payment for a container of goods are alike in the only respect section 6(1) measures: it does not ask what either is for. The section governs who a person may buy or sell foreign currency with inside Trinidad and Tobago. It does not describe a route an inbound transfer has to take.

Evidence the section is still operating

The evidence is a document from 2025 rather than a reading of the 1970 Act.

The Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago issued a public notice on 10 September 2025 citing section 6(1) and listing the institutions holding authorisation under it as at 31 August 2025.

The second row is the part that answers this guide's question. Remittance business is a recognised regulatory category in Trinidad and Tobago, appearing in the description of what a licensed class of institution may do. That is a statement about a licence, not about a customer's motive for sending money.

No published Central Bank policy allocating or prioritising foreign exchange between trade and personal transactions was located. Section 39(2) does empower the Bank to give directions to authorised dealers, so an absence of published policy is not an absence of practice.

What triggers an obligation, if the purpose does not?

An amount. Four figures sit on this corridor, and each counts dollars.

The first row is the duty owed under section 55(2) of the Proceeds of Crime Act, and its figure comes from the 2019 Order rather than from the Act. The second is corroborated by Financial Intelligence Unit guidance of July 2025.

The last two rows are the one place on this corridor where a figure attaches to the form the money takes. Notes carried across the border above those amounts require a declaration to the Comptroller of Customs.

The purpose of the payment sits outside all four.

Two published figures, TT$50,000 and TT$95,000

The amendment lives in a legal notice, and the statute has not been reprinted to match it.

The Proceeds of Crime Act, Chapter 11:27, still gives TT$95,000 at section 55(3C). The operative figure is TT$50,000, set by Legal Notice 356 of 2019. A reader who consults the Act and stops there is wrong by TT$45,000.

The copy that makes this awkward is the one hosted by the Financial Intelligence Unit itself, and it declares the problem on its own face: it is stamped "UNOFFICIAL VERSION - UPDATED TO JUNE 30TH 2013".

The information that travels with every transfer

There is no amount floor. The regulation uses the word all.

The Financial Obligations Regulations 2010 were made as Legal Notice 7 of 2010 under section 56 of the Proceeds of Crime Act. Regulation 33(1) provides that originator and recipient information "shall be included on all domestic and cross-border wire transfers."

Regulation 33(3) sets out what follows when the information does not arrive. Where the originator does not supply the requested transfer identification data, "the transaction shall not be effected and a suspicious activity report shall be submitted to the FIU."

Regulation 34(2) lists what a cross-border transfer carries, including the originator's name and address and the account number or a unique reference where there is no account. Regulation 31(1) requires records to be retained for six years.

Describing a transfer as family support does not lower any of this, because the regulation recognises no category of that kind.

That returns the corridor to where it started. Trinidad and Tobago sorts a payment by who the counterparty to a currency transaction is, by its size, and by whether the required information travels with it. The purpose of the payment is a question the current law does not ask.

Where to look next

How international transfers work sets out the ordinary sequence a payment moves through, what a payment rail is made of covers the layers a cross-border payment depends on, and what it takes to lift capital controls looks at how exchange-control regimes are dismantled. For the live figures, see the AUD to TTD page or the AUD to TTD convert page.

Sources

• Exchange Control Act, Chapter 79:50 (Act 24 of 1970, commenced 15 November 1971), Laws of Trinidad and Tobago. Section 6(1), quoted in full, on transactions in gold and foreign currency with a person other than an authorised dealer and the permission of the Bank as the alternative; section 39(2), empowering the Bank to give directions to authorised dealers; and the repeals effected by Act No. 10 of 1993, covering the whole of Part II "Payments" (sections 11 to 14), the surrender machinery at sections 7 to 10, Part III "Securities" (sections 15 to 21), further operative sections, and the First, Second and Third Schedules
• Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, public notice of 10 September 2025, citing section 6(1) of the Exchange Control Act and listing the institutions licensed as authorised foreign exchange dealers as at 31 August 2025 (13 dealers), together with a separate class of 4 Bureaux de Change authorised to buy and sell notes and coins and to "Conduct foreign exchange conversions which are incidental to primary remittance business"
• Proceeds of Crime Act, Chapter 11:27, section 55(2) creating the large-transaction reporting duty to the Financial Intelligence Unit. Section 55(3C) of the consolidated text still gives TT$95,000, and the copy hosted by the Financial Intelligence Unit is stamped "UNOFFICIAL VERSION - UPDATED TO JUNE 30TH 2013"
• Proceeds of Crime (Large Transactions) Order 2019, Legal Notice 356 of 2019, in force 9 December 2019, fixing the large-transaction figure at TT$50,000
• Financial Obligations Regulations 2010, Legal Notice 7 of 2010, made under section 56 of the Proceeds of Crime Act. The copy at that address is the unamended 2010 text. Regulation 33(1) requiring originator and recipient information on all domestic and cross-border wire transfers with no amount floor; regulation 33(3) providing that the transaction shall not be effected and a suspicious activity report shall be submitted to the FIU where the data is not supplied; regulation 34(2) listing the information a cross-border transfer must carry; regulation 31(1) on six-year record retention; and regulation 11(1)(d) on the TT$6,000 wire-transfer trigger, corroborated by Financial Intelligence Unit guidance of July 2025
• Exchange Control (Import and Export) Order, Legal Notice 58 of 1993, paragraphs 3(1) to 3(2) and 4(1) on the TT$20,000 figure for Trinidad and Tobago legal-tender notes, and paragraphs 3(3) to 3(4) and 4(2) on the US$5,000 figure for foreign currency notes, above which a declaration is made to the Comptroller of Customs

General information about sending money to Trinidad and Tobago and about the exchange-control and reporting rules that apply when it arrives. Not financial advice, and not a recommendation of any product or institution. Reviewed by the Tradergy editorial team, September 2026.