The central bank of Bangladesh Wednesday sought from all scheduled banks the relevant information about the volume of Indian rupee notes of 500 and 1000 denominations held by them. The notes were demonetised Tuesday night.
"We've already contacted different banks, including the State Bank of India (SBI) operations in Bangladesh, over phone to know about holdings of their 500-and 1000-denomination Indian currencies," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE Wednesday.
Most private commercial banks (PCBs) and foreign commercial banks (FCBs) replied in the negative, according to the central banker.
"We'll take next step after receiving such information from the banks," he said.
Talking to the FE, another BB official said the central bank had already been informed that three state-owned commercial banks (SoCBs) hold Indian rupees for their business purposes.
"We've sought detailed report on the Indian bank notes, particularly of Rs500 and Rs1000 denominations, immediately from the SoCBs," the central banker said, without elaborating.
Contacted over the move, a senior official of Agrani Bank Limited said his bank was now working on the issue.
"We'll submit a detailed report on the issue to the central bank soon," the senior official explained.
He also said there was no transaction on rupees Wednesday across the world as per the deceleration of the Indian government.
On the other hand, currency traders stopped exchanging the Indian banknotes in question on open market, known as kerb market, on the day following the announcement by the Indian government.
"We did not exchange notes of those denominations after knowing about withdrawal announcement," a senior currency trader told the FE.
He also said people purchase such notes particularly for the purpose of treatment in India.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday night announced scraping Rs500 and Rs1000 banknotes, the highest-denomination currency notes in the country, as a step to stall trans-border crimes like money laundering, terror financing and address the problem of black money.
The bills can, however, be deposited in an individual's bank or post office accounts between November 10 and December 30, 2016.
Currency value of up to Rs 4,000 can be exchanged from any bank or post office a day until November 24 by showing a government identity card.
Many people and traders in Indo-Bangladesh border areas, especially those close to land ports, customs stations and border haats (bazaars), used to keep some Indian currency notes.
A large number of them are directly and indirectly involved in various cross-border trades, according to sources.
A leading businessman in Dhaka opined that demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs1000 notes should not be a problem for any regular and legal exporter-importer, only illegal businesses would be affected.
siddique.islam@gmail.com
BB seeks info on demonetised Indian rupee notes
Siddique Islam | Published: November 10, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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