Yemen Monitor / Newsroom:
In a move aimed at breaking the stagnation dominating the exchange market, four commercial and Islamic banks in the temporary capital, Aden, announced on Sunday the commencement of purchasing foreign currencies from citizens at elevated ceilings. This comes in implementation of direct instructions from the Central Bank of Yemen.
The list of participating banks includes Al-Kuraimi Bank, Al-Busiri Bank, Aden Islamic Bank, and CAC Bank. These institutions have set the daily purchase limit per individual at 10,000 Saudi Riyals (SAR), adopting the official exchange rate of 425 Yemeni Riyals (YER) per 1 Saudi Riyal.
These measures follow weeks of volatility and concern within the banking sector. Markets had experienced a severe “scarcity” of cash liquidity, which previously led exchange companies and banks to refrain from purchasing or to limit transactions to very small amounts, not exceeding 100 to 200 Saudi Riyals per day.
This decision marks a reversal of previous restrictions imposed by the Central Bank during the national currency’s recovery phase. At that time, buying and selling were restricted to a ceiling of 3,000 Saudi Riyals and required official documentation proving an urgent need for hard currency.
