The National Bank of Angola (BNA) on Wednesday carried out the compulsory purchase of approximately US$89.5 million from four commercial banks that had exceeded the limits of their currency position, accumulating the currency gained and not passed on to customers, said the central bank in a statement issued on Thursday in Luanda.
The statement added the compulsory purchase was carried out due to the commercial banks in question not complying with current legislation, which requires a daily currency position of no more than 5.0% of regulatory own funds.
The law also requires, without instructions from customers or if the banks are unable to execute them, they must sell surplus foreign currency to other banks in the interbank market or, in the last instance, to the BNA itself.
The National Bank of Angola also recalled that, according to Notice 14/19, of 2 December, the limit of 5.0% will be lowered to 2.5% from 2 January 2020, in line with the latest decisions of the Monetary Policy Committee to stimulate greater dynamism and efficiency of the foreign exchange market.
Angolan state newspaper Jornal de Angola reported that the currency reform started by the BNA in January 2018 and boosted at the end of October, with the liberalisation of the exchange rate, has led to the convergence of the rates of the secondary and the unofficial market, with signs that the latter has exhausted its ability to offer more kwanzas per dollar and euro.
Statistics for Tuesday showed that the difference between the rate offered at a bureau de change and the unofficial market was 8.37% for the dollar and 4.28% for the euro, compared with an initial 15.5% and 15.1%, respectively.
Source: Macauhub
