BML sold US$478 million in foreign currency in the first half

Alongside its half-year results, Bank of Maldives said it sold more than US$478 million in foreign currency to businesses and individuals in the first six months of 2026 — a monthly average of about US$80 million, up 30 per cent on last year's average, roughly double the 2023 figure and nearly four times what it was selling monthly in 2021.

Settling customers' overseas card transactions absorbed US$226 million of the total, up 29 per cent from US$175 million in the same period last year. Outward telegraphic transfers took a further US$166 million, and the bank processed 311,722 outward remittance transactions — a fifth more than a year earlier.

The bank presents the numbers as evidence of expanding support; the numbers also describe the pressure. Dollars remain rationed in the Maldivian economy, the parallel market prices them well above the official peg, and BML has kept its caps on overseas e-commerce card use in place through the period.

Every dollar sold at the counter is a dollar the bank must itself source from an economy whose foreign earnings run through tourism — which is having a softer year. That the national bank is selling more of them than ever is one of the stranger comforts the 2026 economy offers.