Male’, Maldives – The State Bank of India (SBI)’s Maldives branch has decreased the amount of USD that can be used from the bank’s cards in foreign countries and which can be withdrawn from ATMs and POS using the SBI card to USD 100 per month.
In an email sent to the bank’s customers, SBI said that the transactions using the bank’s cards in foreign countries have now been limited up to USD 100 per month. They noted in the email that the this change is to take effect starting from December 29, 2020. Previously, the card limit of SBI had been set at USD 250.
SBI has not yet revealed the actual eeason for lowering the card limit. However, experts believe the step was taken due to the reduced number of dollars entering the Maldives’ banking system as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although tourism has been improving, the dollar issue has not been improving thus far.
The country’s national bank, Bank of Maldives (BML) has also limited the amount of dollars its customers can use in a month to USD 250. In addition to this, BML has also banned the use of BML cards in certain e-commerce sites. Though the Covid-19 pandemic has caused a great loss in the economy, Maldives is currently trying to arise from it and restructure the tourism industry as well.
