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Bangladesh Bank yesterday asked 27 banks to explain why they had allowed their credit card holders to spend dollars breaching a ceiling set by the foreign exchange rules.
Some 71 credit card holders of the banks spent between $12,500 and $20,000, ignoring the annual central bank limit of $12,000.
Md Serajul Islam, spokesperson of Bangladesh Bank, said the banks have been instructed to give a reply within five working days.
A BB official, on condition of anonymity, said the central bank had recently carried out inspections at several banks on their usage of dollars when the anomalies were discovered.
The development has come to the surface at a time when the country is facing a shortage of foreign exchange due to an escalation of import payments.
The BB has recently asked banks to impose a 100 per cent margin on opening letters of credit (LCs) for non-essential items, meaning that importers have to pay full import payments in advance.
In addition, the central bank has also asked banks to inform it 24 hours in advance before opening any LC of a minimum of $3 million so as to contain import payments.
Some 71 credit card holders of the banks spent between $12,500 and $20,000, ignoring the annual central bank limit of $12,000
Under such a situation, the breaches of the credit card limit will not fare well, said the BB official.
Earlier in April, the BB banned two officials of Sikder Group and 10 members of the Sikder family from using international credit cards for two years as they exceeded their limits taking loans from National Bank.
The lender gave them $10.58 million (about Tk 91 crore), breaching the credit card limit set by the central bank.
(TDS)
