The Bank of Maldives (BML) on Sunday afternoon reversed its earlier decision of suspending foreign transactions on existing and new debit cards, and new cards linked to MVR accounts, and the foreign transaction limitation of USD 100 per month for Standard and Gold credit cards.
The move came within hours of implementing the initial changes, owing to massive public backlash.
In a statement on Sunday morning, BML announced changes to its card limit to foreign transactions; with complete suspension for existing and new debit cards as well as new credit cards. Additionally, the bank lowered the monthly foreign transactional limit on existing Standard and Gold credit cards to USD 100.
However, the bank in a second statement said that it reversed this decision based on the instruction from the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA), which is the bank’s regulator.
The initial decision was met with extreme public backlash, especially from Maldivian students enrolled in overseas universities.
The bank’s CEO and Managing Director, Karl Stumke said BML was compelled to make the changes since the card usage was threefold higher than the foreign currency the bank was able to purchase this year.
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