Starting from February 9th, 2012 Export and Import entrepreneurs, companies, organizations, hotels, travel & tours business owners and even individuals in Myanmar are able to transfer foreign currencies by account transfer between the licensed banks, according to official news stated in government’s newspaper on 8th of February. This is a welcome initiatives for Myanmar banks and foreign currencies.
“Trading can be done with 11 licensed banks and detail information can be known by contacting relevant banks.” stated in the government’s newspapers. Cooperative Bank (CB – Bank), Mya Wa Di Bank, Myanmar Orient Bank, Kan Baw Za Bank, Myanmar Industrial Development Bank (MIDB), Innwa Bank, Htun Foundation Bank, Aisa Green Development Bank, Myanma Shae Saung Bank, United Amara Bank and Irrawaddy Bank are the licensed banks that government stated in its newspapers.
“Yes, trading can be done starting from February 9th. Mainly it will be done by account transfer. Business owners and individuals can sell foreign money saved in their own accounts to other accounts by account transfer. So it will be a lot more convenient for the business owners. Account transfer can be done with any licensed bank.” explained by a staff from a private bank in Myanmar.
Government has issued trading licence since November 25, 2011. Now, these banks are providing training to their staff on how to set up proper relationship with International banks, methods of connections to Society for World Wide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) and transferring foreign currencies to and from other nations.
This is just one of the many changes made in February concerning with banks and currencies in Myanmar. Several banks, both private and government owned, increased the interest paid on savings accounts back to 10 percent last week from 8 percent in order to bring customers back or gain their trust once more in their respective banks.
Moreover, government has relaxed foreign currency exchange controls starting from 1st February. Every citizen can now swap up to 10,000 US dollars to Kyats at official foreign exchange outlets without requirement of any document. Previously,Myanmar nationals with proof of identity cards could only buy or sell a maximum of 2000 US dollar daily. And those seeking to exchange more than 2000 dollars needed to provide evidence on how they had acquired the foreign currencies. As of February 1, the limit was raised to 10,000 US dollar without requirement of any document, bank source said. But unconfirmed source said those foreign exchange outlets sell 10,000 US dollar but buy only 300 US dollar form citizens and those seeking to exchange still need to show the Identification Card.
