Regulatory foreign-exchange-market intervention pays off as Bangladesh's reserves stay steady for guided exchange and dollar buy from banks as a stabilising measure, sources say.
The country's foreign-exchange reserves show a rebound following the Bangladesh Bank's market intervention to keep taka-dollar exchange rate stable.
And analysts see the balancing action as a boon for both the central bank and commercial banks amid liquidity stress in the country's banking sector.
This has clearly been manifest in the recent purchase of the American greenback by the regulator from the inter-bank spot market under the existing crawling-peg regime.
With the intervention, the banking regulator keeps purchasing the US dollar from the banks, which helps increase the stock of the country's foreign currencies.
On the other side of the tradeoff, many cash-hungry commercial banks take the opportunity and overcome the challenge of their local-currency obligations through selling the precious US currency from their vaults.
Simultaneously, it also helps reduce commercial banks' borrowing dependence on the central bank, which, in fact, prevents money creation to funnel into the market.
According to BB data, the central bank has purchased a total of $ 2.87 billion from the banks since July 13 last and injected over Tk 350 billion into the commercial lending entities in exchange for the greenback so far this financial year (FY'26).
Because of the swaps, the gross forex reserves under the central bank's calculation method stood at US$32.53 billion while it is US$27.88 billion in IMF's arithmetic as on December 18, 2025.
By the end of November last, the reserves had stood at $31.09 billion and $26.39 billion respectively.
Seeking anonymity, a BB official says the central bank intervention under the free-float exchange-rate regime helps stabilise the taka-dollar exchange price, preventing possible freefall in the exchange rate on the market.
"As a matter of fact, the inflow of remittance ridding on good returns continues rising while exporters also feel encouraged to bring more export receipts," he says.
The central banker mentions there were a group of banks struggling in managing liquidity under the persisting economic sluggishness. The intervention opens a window for them and such banks are now liquidated enough using the opportunity.
"And it is largely reflected in the statistics of commercial banks' borrowings from the central bank because it (banks' borrowing from the BB) is declining gradually," the BB official told the FE writer.
The BB data show that commercial banks borrowed Tk 2.54 trillion using various liquidity-feeding instruments from the central bank in August 2025. The borrowed amount kept declining to reach Tk 1.61 trillion, Tk 1.02 trillion and Tk 1.0 trillion in September, October and November respectively.
Founding Chairman of Policy Exchange Bangladesh Dr M Masrur Reaz says the BB's forex-market intervention to stabilise exchange rate proves a boon for both commercial banks and the regulator.
"I think the BB smart policy played a significant role through creating multiple benefits for the economy in the current macroeconomic context," he says.
Apart from reserves buildup and banks' liquidity management, the economist explains, the government maintains export competitiveness through making the exchange rate stable as there was a pressure of depreciation of the local currency.
In the monetary-policy context, he says, the policy is also helping maintain stability in the yields on treasury bills and bonds as the banks having liquidity participated in the auctions of government securities.
"And it helps prevent unusual yield movements despite the government having increased appetite for funds."
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