Some private banks charge foreign exchange rates from foreign currency users much more than the central bank's specified price and black market price, according to the users.
"I want to ask a question to the Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM), CB Bank and friends. I bought an Air Asia flight ticket for my brother through the app using CB Bank Master credit card this morning (August 30). It cost me US$ 154. When I logged in from CB Bank's card+ app, over 500,000 kyats was charged. When I calculated, I saw they charged me 3,411 kyats per US dollar. It is 62 percent higher than the central bank's reference exchange rate. I saw others are saying that processing fees are increased by 45 percent when using credit and debit cards," wrote U Zaw Naing, a social network user.
On the morning of August 30, the foreign exchange rate was only 3,300 kyats per US dollar in black market. The Central Bank has set the foreign exchange rate as 2,100 kyats per US dollar starting from August 5, and transactions must be done within 0.3 of the set rate.
U Zaw Naing questioned whether the Central Bank has approved the charge made by the CB Bank and what conditions the Central Bank has set for such charges.
"What I want to ask the central bank is (1) before the local banks allowed credit/debit cards using Visa and Master, whether the central bank, which is the financial regulator, has set a limit on how much the processing fee must be charged or not. (2) Whether the regulator, the central bank, plan to say anything about the charges up to 45 or 62 percent or not. What I want to ask CB Bank is whether it needs or does not need permission from the central bank to charge up to 62 percent. Before issuing the bank cards, in the agreement that users were asked to sign in small print, it is stated that the bank will charge such a processing fee at a reasonable rate and whether the bank informed its users in advance that they will charges 45 to 62 percent of the processing fees or not”, U Zaw Naing wrote.
It has been reported in some news media that Visa and Master Card users are being charged a service fee for using the dollars in the card when transferring money from abroad, and are charged more than the black market price.
Currently, the dollar exchange rate and black market prices change over time and the price is not stable.
