The Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Tuesday bought record $265 million from 17 banks in a single day, taking its purchases so far in FY26 to about $1.34 billion.
The move is a part of the central bank’s efforts to contain the depreciation of the US dollar against the Taka.
For the auction, the central bank set a cut-off rate of Tk121.75. Twenty banks submitted bids, and 17 of them sold dollars, BB officials said.
Islami Bank Bangladesh accounted for the largest share by selling $100 million.
In the interbank market on Tuesday, the dollar traded between Tk121.69 and Tk121.76.
The central bank has bought more than $1 billion from commercial banks since mid-July, reversing its earlier strategy of selling dollars to slow the Taka's fall and support state agencies paying import bills.
Stronger remittances and exports, together with the central bank's buying spree, have helped lift the country's foreign exchange reserve.
On August 28, the forex reserve stood at $26.19 billion, up from $20.59 billion a year earlier, according to Bangladesh Bank.
In the past three years till FY25, Bangladesh Bank sold more than $25 billion from its foreign exchange reserve to pay for fuel, fertilizer, and food imports.
But after the Awami League-led government was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising, the central bank suspended dollar sales for government imports, citing depleted reserves.
