The Bank of Maldives is offering up to 25 percent returns to customers who invest their dollars. It calls this an investment product. Critics call it something closer to a confession.
Run the bank’s own example backwards and the picture changes: invest US$ 1,000, receive MVR 19,275 – an effective MVR 19.28 for every dollar. That isn’t a return. It’s the price the national bank is now willing to pay to buy a dollar, well above the MVR 15.42 peg it is meant to honour and just below the black market rate it is quietly competing with.
Is it legal? Is it the parallel market with a bank’s letterhead? And is the Maldives now ready to let the rufiyaa float? We put these questions to former central bank governor Ali Hashim, sifted the government’s response and the public’s fury, and explain what the scheme really does.
Read the full explainer: https://maldivesindependent.com/explainer/invest-a-dollar-lose-a-dollar-what-bmls-new-scheme-really-does-12de



