Bank of Maldives (BML) has reinstated the limitations of foreign transaction limits on all cards, cancelling their earlier decision to discontinue dollar support for MVR cards.

BML today announced that they will be removing foreign transactions from existing and new Maldivian Rufiyaa debit and credit cards. In addition, the monthly overseas transactions with standard and gold credit cards were reduced to USD 100.

However, BML later reviewed the decision and reversed the changes made today.

Announcing the decision, the Bank said it had reviewed the changes to the transaction limits under the guidance of the bank’s regulator, the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA), and withdrawn the decisions.

BML CEO and Managing Director Karl Stumke said the Bank has been monitoring card usage over the past year, and have reiterated in numerous speeches and interviews that the Bank can only sell what it has been able to purchase.

“This year we have purchased approximately USD 60 million in foreign currency from our customers, but card usage is threefold higher than that. The card usage impacts our ability to provide foreign currency support to our business customers and we have this anomaly where the Bank provides 75% less foreign currency to the economic sector than we do for discretionary spend on cards dominated by travel and online shopping. We have to get the mix correct and ensure we are not squandering a scarce resource," Karl said.

Many people have expressed concern over BML's decision