Forex reserves still at standard level: BB governor

Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Fazle Kabir on Sunday said the country's foreign exchange reserves are still at a standard level.

"The reserves stood at $41.7 billion, which is good enough to settle import bills for more than five and a half months. Import payments of the country stood at on average $7.5 billion in the last 10-11 months. It is the standard level for any country to keep reserves to settle import bills for at least three months. So, we are still in a comfort zone," he said.

The central bank governor said this while speaking at a cybersecurity summit organised by the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh (ABB) at a hotel in the city. The summit, inaugurated by Fazle Kabir, is the first such event for banks in the country.

Fazle Kabir said the country has been facing foreign exchange pressure in the last couple of months due to the soaring import payments stemming from the global supply chain disruption.

As the banks continue to embrace a digital reality for ensuring a more professional customer experience, integrated cybersecurity has emerged as part and parcel of everyday banking operations.

More than 50 banks and 200 participants from the banking industry including MDs & CEOs, COOs, CTOs, CIOs and CISOs are participating in the summit.

Association of Bankers, Bangladesh Limited (ABB) is organising the two-day summit titled “Building Cyber Resilience for Banks” to make the bankers cyber-conscious and be more prepared for the future.

ABB Chairman Selim RF Hussain said, “As cybercrime is increasing in this age of digital banking, we must prepare ourselves to tackle the risk. With the magnitude of threats, we think, a stronger collective response and knowledge-sharing is essential to face the threat. We hope we will return to our workplaces with ample wisdom on cybersecurity and prepare ourselves for the future after this two-day summit.”

He added, “As a professional body of senior bankers, ABB is fully aligned with the vision of Digital Bangladesh of the government and strives to imbue the same among the banking professionals. The forum has plans for more such initiatives to augment the cybersecurity capability of the banking professionals under guidance of Bangladesh Bank.”

The summit is supported by world-renowned companies - Thakral and VMware as the Gold sponsors, and Kaspersky, Omega, OneWorld, and Trellix as the Silver sponsors.

Bangladesh Bank Executive Director Debdulal Roy, ABB Chairman and BRAC Bank MD&CEO Selim RF Hussain, ABB Vice-Chairman and Sonali Bank MD & CEO Md Ataur Rahman Prodhan, ABB Vice-Chairman and EXIM Bank MD & CEO Dr Mohammed Haider Ali Miah, and ABB Secretary-General and Standard Bank MD & CEO Khondoker Rashed Maqsood were present during the inauguration.