Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)-The country’s foreign exchange reserve stood at US$ 5.728 billion on Wednesday as valuation gains foreign exchange holdings abroad.
“The foreign exchange reserve stood at $5.728 billion from $5.724 billion of the pervious working day,” a Bangladesh Bank (BB) senior official told BBN in Dhaka on the day.
He also said the country’s foreign exchange reserve may reach $5.80 billion by the end of this month.
On Tuesday, the central bank received around $50 million as valuation gain on account of its foreign currencies holdings abroad and over $80 million deposited to its clearing accounts by the commercial banks.
Local commercial banks have been advised to transfer foreign exchange from troubled overseas banks in the event of global financial crisis, officials said.
Deposit of the US currency has been increasing gradually in the BB’s clearing accounts after the commercial banks were advised to transfer most part of their foreign currency holdings from overseas banks to its accounts.
Earlier, the central bank of Bangladesh advised senior executives of some local commercial banks to shift their hard earned foreign currencies from troubled global banks.
Currently, the local commercial banks have around US$500 million in NOSTRO accounts with the foreign banks operating outside Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, some local commercial banks have already shifted their foreign currencies from the NOSTRO accounts with foreign commercial banks operating globally to the clearing account of the BB to avoid any possible risk in the near future.
On October 8 last, high officials of the central bank reviewed the overall global financial situation with a view to taking necessary measures to avoid any undesirable situation.
The BB officials, however, have found no financial transactions taking place between the global troubled banks and the local commercial banks.
The country’s banking system remains immune to the international financial turmoil since local banks do have investments in the troubled international banks, they added.
BBN/SI/SS/AD15October08-6:20 PM (BST)
