Banks asked to quote US$ within Tk 76 for 15 days

Siddique Islam The Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers' Association (BAFEDA) has asked its member banks not to quote per US dollar beyond Tk 76 at customer level for the next 15 days to bring discipline in the country's foreign exchange market. The exchange rate of the US currency for bills for collection (BC) selling for opening letters of credit (LCs) against imports will come into effect from today (Tuesday). The decisions came at a special meeting of the BAFEDA, held at its office in the city Monday with its chairman S M Aminur Rahman in the chair. "We've taken the decisions after reviewing the overall forex market situation," the BAFEDA chief told the reporters after the meeting, adding that similar meeting will be held within the next 15 days. "We cannot give any cap on the BC selling rate," Mr Rahman said while replying a query, adding that the new rate has been fixed unanimously at the meeting. According to the decisions, the banks will be allowed to quote less than the BC selling rate (Tk 76) to the overseas exchange houses for expatriate remittance. A technical committee will submit a report to the executive committee of the BAFEDA within the next seven days, considering the latest situation on the country's overall forex market. The greenback was quoted at average Tk 76.0668 Monday for BC selling for opening LCs against imports, while it was quoted at Tk 75.1056 for telegraphic transfer (TT) clean, the BAFEDA data showed. "Any regulation should be enacted by the regulator, but the BAFEDA is not a regulatory body. So all members of the BAFEDA have unanimously decided to maintain the exchange rate of the US dollar against the local currency at Tk 76 at the customer level for the next 15 days," a senior BAFEDA member told the FE. He also said the decisions of the meeting will be conveyed to the central bank by Wednesday. On October 5, the central bank asked the bankers to quote foreign currency exchange rates to the overseas exchange houses, after applying due diligence and considering the situation in the international forex market. Currently, some commercial banks are quoting unusually high rates to the overseas exchange houses to attract more inward remittances, and these rates often exceed the inter-bank foreign exchange market rates, market insiders said.