Exchange houses won’t get higher than banks’ fixed rate for a dollar: BB

Foreign exchange houses will not get higher than the banks' fixed rate at the time of selling US dollar to banks in Bangladesh.

The central bank shared the information in a meeting between the representatives of the top foreign exchange houses in Bangladesh and the officials of the Foreign Exchange Policy Department (FEPD) of the central bank held at the BB headquarters in Dhaka today.

The banking watchdog made the call nearly a week after directing banks not to buy US dollar from the remitters at rates over Tk 116.

In the directive issued on November 9, it was said that banks can offer a maximum of Tk 116 per dollar, including incentives for collecting remittance, as per the decision of the Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers' Association (Bafeda) and the Association of Bankers' Bangladesh (ABB).

According to the Bafeda-ABB decision, banks will be able to collect a dollar from exchange houses at a maximum rate of Tk 110.5 while banks can provide a maximum incentive of 2.5 percent from their own funds.

The customers will get Tk 116 for every US dollar, including a government incentive of 2.5 percent.

Md Sarwar Hossain, director of FEPD, presided over today's meeting where representatives of top 10 foreign exchange houses, including Western Union, Instant cash, MoneyGram, Small World, Transfast, Merchantrade Asia, Ria Money Transfer, Placid and NEC money transfer, were present.

Hossain, also the assistant spokesperson of Bangladesh Bank, told The Daily Star that the central bank has asked them to follow the rules and regulations for selling remittance to banks.