Home ›› 19 Aug 2022 ›› Front
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) issued show-cause notices to managing directors of six banks on Wednesday, for their suspected involvement in destabilising the country’s foreign exchange market.
The six are Brac Bank, Southest Bank, City Bank, Prime Bank, Dutch-Bangla Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.
Bangladesh Bank Executive Director and Spokesperson Md Serajul Islam told The Business Post that the central bank also asked the six banks, not to transfer the earnings gained from the foreign exchange market to their income accounts.
Before the move, on 8 August, the BB asked those six banks to transfer their treasury heads due to their involvement in destabilising the forex market.
The BB found that those treasury heads were involved in gaining excessive profits by taking advantage of the current volatility in the forex market.
In the January-June period of this year, several banks including those six banks gained unusual profits from foreign currency.
Amid the ongoing volatility in the foreign exchange market, importers spent as high as Tk 116-118 per dollar to pay import bills, an extra burden for the country’s importers. The growing import payment after the pandemic and during the Russia-Ukraine war put pressure on the foreign exchange market.
The country’s foreign exchange reserve stood at $39.54 billion as on 16 August, down from $46.08 billion on the same date of last year, as per the BB data.
