Banks charge higher rates for opening LCs: SBP Governor

November 11, 2022 (MLN): Lately, the banks charged higher rates for opening the Letters of Credit (LCs), Governor SBP highlighted while speaking at Senate Committee meeting.

Talking about local currency he said that the rupee is under pressure owing to higher current account deficit and fall in foreign exchange reserves.

To recall, foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) fell by $955.9 million to $7.96 billion during the week ended on 4th Nov’22.

“The decrease in the foreign exchange reserves is attributed to external debt servicing and the major external debt repayments executed during the week include the repayment of GoP commercial loans”, SBP reported.

State Minister Aisha Ghous Pasha said that investigations against banks should be made public and SBP will impose heavy penalties on them for charging a higher premium in dollars.

Moreover, the National Bank of Pakistan is also on the list which sold dollars at higher rates for the opening of LCs.

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