DHAKA: The foreign currency reserves had crossed that mark for the first time on Apr 25, amidst widespread criticism over February’s $81 million cyber theft from the central bank’s account in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The reserves had dropped in the first week of May after paying $900 million in bills of Asian Clearing Union (ACU) for March and April, but went past $29 billion again in the past few days.
The amount stood at $29.23 billion at the end of Thursday, Bangladesh Bank spokesperson Shubhankar Saha told bdnews24.com. That is sufficient to meet the country’s import bills for the next eight months. The official said the reserves were in a ‘satisfactory’ condition for the past few years due to increase in export income and decrease in imports.
In February, hackers had tried to steal nearly $1 billion from the central bank’s account at the New York Fed. One fraudulent transfer to a Sri Lankan entity was reversed, but four transfers for a combined $81 million went to the Philippines and wound up being laundered through casinos and casino agents there. Most of the money remains missing.
