COLOMBO (News 1st) – The Central Bank of Bangladesh last week issued a circular advising all authorized dealers, including banks, to refrain from transactions with Sri Lankan banks through the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) system.The move has been made in response to the "self-motivated decision by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) to remain temporarily suspended from ACU mechanism with effect from October 14th".Accordingly, all authorized dealers have been advised not to do any trade and trade related transactions with Sri Lanka through the ACU mechanism.The Asian Clearing Union was created among the South Asian Nations in order to provide trading facilities among the South Asian Nations, plus Iran and Myanmar as members in 1974.
Within the ACU, all eligible transactions between member countries are required to be settled through the Asian Clearing Union.
The unit of settlement of ACU transactions is a common unit of account of ACU, which is equivalent to one USD.In case of importation of materials into a country, it would be debited to the account of that specific country at the Asian Secretariat, and the balance is settled every two months through the ACU in hard currency.With this new move, it would halt the possibility of conducting any transactions between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka through the ACU.
However, when New1st inquired on the matter from former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Dr. W.A. Wijewardena, he stated that Sri Lanka's withdrawal from the ACU is doubtful.