Bangladesh Bank yesterday asked foreign exchange houses in the country to not sell US dollars to banks for more than the recently fixed rate of Tk 110.50 per greenback.

The central bank issued this directive after meeting with representatives of local foreign exchange houses and officials of the Foreign Exchange Policy Department (FEPD) at its headquarters in Dhaka.

On November 9, the Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers Association (Bafeda) and Association of Bankers Bangladesh (ABB) decided that banks can buy US dollars from exchange houses for a maximum of Tk 110.50 per greenback.

It was also decided that banks would be able to provide customers an incentive of up to 2.5 percent from their own fund for receiving foreign currency through banking channels.

So, including the government incentive of 2.5 percent, remitters can now get up to Tk 116 per US dollar.

After the meeting, Md Sarwar Hossain, director of the FEPD, said they were asked to follow the rules and regulations when engaging in remittance dealings with banks.

Hossain, also assistant spokesperson of Bangladesh Bank, presided over the meeting, where representatives of 10 foreign exchanges, including Western Union and MoneyGram, were present.

The dollar market saw fresh volatility last week as some banks offered as much as Tk 124 per greenback to bring in remittance and overcome the ongoing foreign currency shortage.