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Nationalised commercial banks (NCBs) are facing a dwindling flow of inward remittances and export businesses due to the existence of dual rates in the interbank foreign exchanges market.
Currently, in the inter-bank foreign exchange market one exchange rate is fixed by the NCBs, which is lower than the other set by private commercial banks (PCBs) and foreign commercial banks (FCBs).
Under the existing situation, many of the importers are moving to the state-owned commercial banks to avail themselves of the benefit of lowest foreign exchanges rates for opening their letters of credit (LC).
At the same time, the NCBs are losing inward remittances for quoting lowest rates of telegraphic transfer (TT) clean, which is only applicable for the exchange houses serving expatriate Bangladeshis.
The gap is around Tk 2.0 between the exchange rates quoted by the NCBs and other banks for different deals including LC payments and export receipts, sources in the market said.
For opening LCs against imports, the NCBs quoted the dollar at Tk 67.25, while the FCBs and PCBs sold the greenback at Tk 69.25-69.20 Tuesday.
Currently, some commercial banks are facing problem in making their import payments against LCs due to short supply of the greenback in the interbank market.
However, the banks quoted the dollar at Tk 66.60 in interbank trading on the day, unchanged from the previous day.
"The NCBs may face an unmanageable situation if the existing trend continues," a market operator told the FE Tuesday, adding that the trend had already created uneven competition among the banks.
"We need a uniform exchange rate to increase the transactions in the interbank foreign exchange market," said a fund manager of a commercial bank.
Dual exchange rates always give a wrong signal about the market, he observed.
Sources, however, said the three NCBs and one specialised bank are likely to adjust the rate of US dollar at customers' level to minimise the gap with the PCBs and FCBs.
The Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Krishi banks are expected to revise their rate of foreign exchanges at higher level to increase the flow of foreign exchange from exporters and expatriate Bangladeshis.
"We are still reviewing the market situation," a senior official of a NCB told the FE, adding that some new importers had already contacted with them for opening their LCs against imports.
On the other hand, the call rate remained unchanged at 23.50 per cent Tuesday, while most of the deals were settled between 11 per cent and 12 per cent.
The two NCBs -Janata and Agrani - mostly quoted the call rates between 11 per cent and 12 per cent Tuesday. However, the PCBs and FCBs lent funds at 9.00-23.50 per cent.
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