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The central bank on Monday sought an explanation from 13 private commercial banks that allegedly violated the official exchange rate against the greenback.
It has asked the banks to give their explanation within the next five working days.
Seeking anonymity, a Bangladesh Bank (BB) official said they have issued letters to the banks as they received allegations of 13 banks' involvement in buying and selling dollar at a much higher than the official rate.
Without disclosing any names, the central banker said the banks would face punishment if found guilty.
Another official, who also preferred to be unmanned, said the banks bought dollar at Tk 116 and sold at Tk 117, which was much higher than the official rate.
"The BB takes the issue very seriously as it will trigger more volatility in the forex market," he added.
On September 03, the Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers' Association and the Association of Bankers' Bangladesh (ABB) Ltd unanimously decided and implemented a uniform exchange rate guideline asking the banks to follow the instructions.
According to the guideline, the buying rate of all types of foreign currencies (wage earners' remittances and export proceeds) has been fixed at Tk 109.50 per dollar.
On the other hand, the selling rate for import bill settlement, outward remittance, credit card payment settlement, student file settlement and others has been fixed at Tk 110 per dollar.
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