A high-powered committee has been formed to review the prevailing situation of the inter-bank foreign exchange market and movement of exchange rates. The Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers' Association (BAFEDA) formed the committee against the backdrop of unstable situation in the foreign exchange market relating to letters of credit (LCs) payment against imports by some commercial banks due to short supply of the greenback in the market. The supply of the foreign exchange has faced fresh pressure in the last couple of weeks due mainly to a major overseas payment by the state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC). The nationalised commercial banks (NCBs) provided necessary foreign exchange support. The committee was formed at a meeting of the executive committee of BAFEDA, held at its office in the city Thursday. Senior Executive Member of the BAFEDA and Managing Director of the Agrani Bank Syed Abu Naser Bukhtear Ahmed presided over the meeting. A seven-member committee, headed by Deputy Managing Director of the South East Bank Limited Syed Imtiaz Hasib, will submit its report to the BAFEDA by the third week of the next month. "We will submit the report to the concerned authorities for taking necessary steps to restore stability in the market," Naser Bukhtear told the FE after the meeting. Sources, however, said the BAFEDA is continuously trying to bring back normalcy in the country's inter-bank foreign exchange market through re-fixing the rate of the greenback. Currently, the gap between the rates quoted by the NCBs, the private commercial banks (PCBs) and the foreign commerce banks (FCBs) is still over Tk 1.50 in transaction for LC payments against imports of different goods. The NCBs have re-fixed the rate of greenback at customer's level several times over the last couple of months to minimise the gap of rates. But the gap remains still high. The banks quoted the dollar at Tk 66.15-66.20 Thursday, unchanged from the previous level, in the inter-bank foreign exchange market. For opening LCs against imports, the NCBs quoted the dollar at Tk 66.50, while the PCBs and FCBs sold the greenback at Tk 67.40-68.25 Thursday.
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