Venezuela brokerages start testing new forex platform, see launch 'soon'

A new free-floating foreign exchange platform for Venezuela will start trial runs on Friday afternoon and is expected to launch "quite soon," the head of the country's brokerages association said. "Today we're starting to test out the platform," the brokerage group's head, Ricardo Montilla, said.  President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month announced plans to change 12-year-old currency controls by turning the government-run auction system known as Sicad II, which provides the weakest of the three rates, into a platform operated by brokerages. "Initially I think participation will be fairly timid," Montilla said a day after meeting with Venezuela's finance minister and central banker to discuss the new system. But "it will increase as confidence is generated," he added. More…