Money changers, who mostly trade in foreign currencies with individuals on physical counters in the open market, are struggling to survive for a drastic fall in the movement of international passengers.
Local money-changing firms collect dollars and other currencies from international passengers, mostly from expatriate Bangladeshis.
The major buyers of the same are also international passengers who leave Bangladesh for business or other purposes.
Coronavirus-induced travel restrictions hit the aviation industry globally since the deadly pathogen started wreaking havoc on life and livelihood from early part of 2020.
Such restrictions in many international airports are still in place.
The volume of international flights to and from Bangladesh has come down drastically due to restrictions in recent months. Initially, the air travel remained suspended for some months
According to currency traders, both demand for, and supply of, foreign currencies have declined significantly as public movement to and from Bangladesh remained much low, excepting medical travels to India.
Besides, the demand has dropped due to a substantial fall in international travel (including for hajj and umrah) following bouts of lockdown imposed globally amid the pandemic.
The forex traders said many firms have failed to meet the minimum annual selling/buying target of $500,000.
Bangladesh Bank, the regulator of the 202 valid foreign-exchange trading firms, has given a target of selling/buying currencies equivalent to $500,000 or half a million dollar a year.
The firms in aggregate should have sold/bought at least $110 million a year, but many did not meet the target in 2020, the leaders of association said.
However, the central bank eased the target for 2020 following a slump in trading. They need to report about their transactions to the regulator daily.
The traders said the ongoing lockdown has further aggravated the situation.
"Our business has remained much poor since last March as the number of international flights fell notably due to the Covid-related ban," said Money Changers' Association of Bangladesh president AKM Ismail Haq.
"Demand for foreign currencies from individuals on physical counters has dropped significantly since Covid was identified in March 2020 here," he added.
Only some vendors based in airport and land port areas are doing some business, said Mr Haq whose association comprises 202 foreign-currency traders.
More than one-fourth of the currency vendors are located in Motijheel, Paltan and Fakirapool areas.
Some 26 out of 202 are located in Uttara and Shahjalal International Airport areas, 35 in Banani and Gulshan areas, 29 at Dhanmondi and Mirpur, 17 in Chattogram, 12 in Sylhet and 13 in North Bengal.
"Many members even don't open their offices as it so happens that they don't get a single customer all day," cited Mr Haq who owns Glory Money Exchange Limited.
Even they cannot deposit cash or surplus with banks, he told the FE.
"Many have surplus or adequate amount of foreign currency due to a slump in demand but they can't deposit as the existing rules don't allow them."
If they are allowed to deposit with banks, the interbank market may be stabilised at a time when banks face trouble to meet import payments.
According to the association leaders, banks used to come to buy currencies at a time when they had less than the amount of forex needed to meet such payments.
Traders, however, preserve foreign currencies in their own vaults.
On the other hand, many traders have now concentrated themselves in other areas of business or investments as a result of a long slump in their traditional one.
Shakawat Hossian Kabir, owner of National Money Changers' Limited, said: "I'm now at a brokerage house as my office remains closed for a lack of customers."
"How many days will we wait for normal business activity?" he told the FE on a frustrating note.
Meanwhile, bankers said remittance inflow in the formal channel has increased significantly as expatriates now prefer to stay at their respective workstations for Covid-19 and limited flight operations.
The wage-earners remittance was recorded at $18.6 billion, or over 35 per cent up than the same period a year earlier, in nine months of the current fiscal year helping stabilise the forex rate in banks.
