Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The central bank of Bangladesh has asked to commercial banks to suspend operations in 'ACU Euro' temporarily as the payment channel for processing such transactions has been suspended by some correspondents.
“Accordingly, all eligible current account transactions in 'ACU Euro' are permitted to be settled outside the ACU mechanism until further notice,” the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central, said in a directive on Wednesday.
In 2009, the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) introduced Euro alongside the US dollar for settlement of payments among its member countries.
Under the existing Guidelines for Foreign Exchange Transactions (GFET), the banks are allowed making for payment settlement through ACU mechanism in either 'ACU Dollar' or in 'ACU Euro'.
The ACU is an arrangement among Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives through which intra-regional transactions among the participating central banks are settled on a multilateral basis.
The union started its operations in November 1975 to boost trade among the member countries. Bangladesh and Myanmar joined the union as the sixth and the seventh members in 1976 and 1977 respectively. Bhutan joined the ACU in December 1999 and the Maldives in January 2010.
BBN/SSR/AD