Bangladesh Bank will pump dollars into the state-owned commercial banks to assist country’s foreign trades in opening letter of credits (LC), BB sources said.

BB took the decision in a bid to address the prevailing dollar crisis that is hindering country’s export and import business. There is an allegation from the concerned people that banks are not assisting businessmen in opening LCs for the crunch of the greenback.

BB officials said, the declining flow of remittance, coupled with the imbalanced volume of imports compared with that of export in last six months, contributed to the dollar crisis.

Sources said, seven banks, including the four state-owned ones, exceeded the limit of dollar reserve. The banks are Agrani, Janata, Rupali, Sonali, Exim, Jamuna and Markentile.

Earlier, the BB issued show cause notices to eight banks for crossing the reserve limit.

According to the foreign exchange reserve policy, the foreign currency reserve limit is 15 percent. In crisis moments, banks are allowed to purchase dollar from other banks. But recently, banks are violating the policy fearing that they might not be able to purchase dollar from other banks.

News: Daily Sun/  Bangladesh/Mar-08-2011