The Bangladesh Bank yesterday widened the scope for remitters to deposit their foreign currency earnings and get interest against the funds in forex.

In a notice, the central bank said that resident foreign currency deposit (RFCD) accounts can be opened in any approved foreign currency such as the US dollar, the euro, the pound sterling, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, Chinese renminbi, the Swiss franc and Singaporean dollar.

The interest or profit will be payable on the deposits maintained for a minimum of one month at a markup of 1.50 percent over the benchmark rate of respective currencies.

The BB notice said that remittances can be effective on current transactions for dependents of account-holders, in addition to transactions including but not limited to the cost of travel, education for children, and treatment of account-holders.

It said that a maximum two supplementary international cards can be issued to dependents of account-holders against RFCD accounts. The balances held in the accounts are freely encashable in the taka as and when necessary.

A senior official of the central bank said that most of the facilities were mentioned in the Bangladesh Bank guidelines for Foreign Exchange Transactions-2018 and the banking regulator has now specified and widened the facilities in order to bring forex to formal channels.

Previously, resident Bangladeshis were allowed to open and maintain RFCD accounts with foreign exchanges brought in at the time of their return from abroad.

Any amount can be brought in with declaration in the foreign money and jewellery form and up to $10,000 or equivalent could be brought in without declaration.