The Bank of Maldives, BML, has announced several measures to enhance the Bank’s processes to ensure fair and equitable access to foreign currency for essential public needs.
It said that under the digital partnership between Maldives Immigration and the Bank of Maldives, the Bank of Maldives will be able to enable foreign spend limits specifically for card-present Point of Sale (POS) transactions conducted overseas.
BML stated that this targeted approach ensures that customers travelling abroad can continue to use their cards seamlessly for genuine transactions, while strengthening safeguards against unauthorized or abusive practices that are against the international card payment networks' standards.
The Bank said that if a student studying abroad does not have their own card and is using a guardian’s card, a student card will be issued to that student with the student's foreign spending limit, adding that until the student card is issued, the guardian’s card can be used for a period of 3 months.
BML also stated that cards linked to dollar accounts can be used without any foreign spend restrictions based on the dollars available in the customer's account.
It further said that for customers holding multiple credit cards, the annual fee will only be charged for one credit card since the monthly foreign spend limit is applied per customer. No additional annual fee will be charged for customers with multiple credit cards.
The bank further stated that the sale of USD or other foreign currency support for TTs will be processed only during the bank’s operating hours. However, TT transfers sent in US Dollars can be processed 24/7, including on holidays.
It warned that parties attempting to obtain large amounts of dollars by splitting TT transactions will be identified, and sales to such parties will be restricted within the imposed limits.
