Bangladesh Bank on Wednesday warned the authorised dealer banks that it would cancel the licence of any bank found involved in a rat race for collecting remittance from abroad by offering high rates of dollar.
The BB warning came from a meeting of the central bank with chief executive officers and managing directors of all banks at the BB headquarters on the ongoing dollar crisis.
BB deputy governor Ziaul Hasan Siddique presided over the meeting.
BB officials observed that the price of dollar shoot up because of unhealthy competition between banks to bring in remittance by offering high rates of dollar.
'Some of the banks are in a rat race for collecting remittance. If a bank offers Tk 75 for a dollar, others offer Tk 76 to bring in the remittance. This sort of practice must be stopped, otherwise the BB would cancel the licences of the errant banks,' said a BB official.
The inter-bank buying rate of dollar soared to Tk 75.41 on Wednesday from Tk 74.90 on September 18 while the selling rate increased to Tk 75.45 from Tk 75.05 because of a supply dearth of dollar.
BB officials also asked the banks to expedite repatriation of export proceeds in the wake of the country's depleting foreign exchange reserve.
A BB high official said BB's forex reserve had been depleting in recent times because of rising import.
BB officials told the bank chiefs that, although as per the rules the banks were given a maximum of four months to repatriate export proceeds, they should take steps so that the proceeds could be brought in by a week or two.
They also told the banks to negotiate vigorously with their clients to repatriate the export proceeds fast, considering the current state of the country's foreign exchange reserve, which came down to around $9.94 billion at the moment from around $11.32 billion in March.
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