Photo : Messenger
The Bangladesh Bank's initiative to increase dollar reserves is bearing fruit as nearly $4 crore has been deposited in the Resident Foreign Currency Deposit (RFCD) accounts.
This is happening as people are now depositing in banks the greenback and other foreign currencies that they kept at home, sources at the Bangladesh Bank said. Besides, banks are paying interest of up to 7 per cent on dollars deposited in the RFCD accounts.
Till 20 March, $3.94 crore was deposited in the RFCD accounts, which is boosting the country’s dollar reserves.
An official of the central bank said anyone can keep dollars in the RFCD accounts as cash. “These dollars can be spent both at home and abroad. When you travel abroad, you can withdraw $5,000 from the account.”
Even a month ago, banks had deposits of $3.2 crore, up from $2.8 crore in January. However, before the dollar crisis began, banks used to have deposits of an average of $5 crore.
Though the dollar stock in banks has increased, it has not yet impacted the open market, where every dollar is being traded at more than Tk 120.
The Bangladesh Bank issued a circular on December 3 last year, allowing banks to offer additional benefits, including interests on the RFCD accounts, for depositing dollars kept at home. After that, some banks, including City Bank, started opening such accounts.
At present, most of the dollars are deposited at Eastern Bank, City Bank, BRAC Bank, Dutch-Bangla Bank, Prime Bank, Pubali Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC, Islami Bank, and some others. Apart from US dollar, RFCD accounts can also be opened to deposit British pound, Euro, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, and Singaporean dollar.
Syed Mahbubur Rahman, managing director of Mutual Trust Bank, told The Daily Messenger, "As a result of the central bank’s policies, dollar deposits in banks are increasing. Those who bought dollars legally and kept those at home are now depositing those in banks.”
“This is because they can now earn interests on the deposited dollars. But the dollars bought illegally may not be deposited in banks. To increase the deposit of dollars in banks, we will take various initiatives, including campaigns, from next month,” he added.
Who can open RFCD account
Any Bangladeshi citizen above 18 years coming from abroad can open an RFCD account by going to the bank. He has to submit copies of the passport and visa to the bank. Two copies of photograph, a nominee, the national identity card (NID), and tax identification number (TIN) are also required for account opening.
How much dollar can be deposited
A person can deposit up to $10,000 in the RFCD account for each foreign trip. This means if he travelled abroad 10 times in the last one year, he can deposit $1,00,000 in his account without any documents. However, if he wants to deposit more, he will have to submit a customs declaration.
According to the instructions of the Bangladesh Bank, banks will give at least another 1.5 per cent interest along with the benchmark rate on the deposits in the RFCD accounts. The secured overnight financing rate is now 5.31 per cent. So, the interest rate in the RFCD accounts stands at 6.81 per cent.
Messenger/Fameema
