September 16, 2022
DHAKA – Bangladeshi banks can now maintain account in Chinese Yuan Renminbi (CNY) with their correspondent lenders or branches abroad to help local businesses settle foreign trade with that currency.
A Bangladesh Bank official said the government had declared the CNY as convertible currency in March 2014 by issuing a gadget notification, but many banks are still not using that currency for settling foreign trades.
Under such a situation, the central bank issued the notice so that banks give more importance to the issue, he said.
On top of that, the local businesses have recently urged the central bank to reduce dependency on the US dollar for foreign trade settlement.
Syed Mahbubur Rahman, managing director of Mutual Trust Bank, said doing foreign trade will get diversified if both businesses and banks come forward to use different currencies.
Such type of move will also reduce the large dependency on a single foreign currency while opening and settling letters of credit, he said.
The country’s foreign exchange market became volatile soon after the inception of the Russia and Ukraine war.