There is no shortage of dollars in the open currency markets of Islamabad and Rawalpindi following the arrest of owners of a leading exchange company by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). A survey, conducted by Business Recorder on Wednesday, revealed that most of the moneychangers were operating smoothly in Blue Area, Jinnah Super and Rawalpindi.
However, the number of visitors to the open currency shops has decreased after raids of FIA at a forex company's branches located at Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. An owner of a leading moneychanger in Blue Area market said that there was some fear among the customers, who intended to purchase or sell ever-favourite greenback. Due to sudden action against a top forex company, people are reluctant to carryout business transitions, involving substantial amount of foreign exchange.
The overall volume of the visitors to the open currency has decreased and most of the visitors are international passengers, students or businessmen intending to go abrord. On an average, customers in Islamabad generally demanded around 200-1000 dollars per transaction. However, there are no big transactions in currency exchanges, money changers added.
After repeated phone calls, this scribe managed to contact a market expert/analyst of Khanani and Kalia International at Karachi. He was of the view that the exchange company was covering the largest base of customers across the country. It was a well-established enterprise and closure of their business had created fear among the general visitors in all the major cities, he added.
However, people had alternate arrangements for buying and selling of dollars and other foreign currencies, he said, adding that majority of the businessmen, who relied on this exchange company, were panicked due to sudden closure of business.
He admitted that the confidence of investors and customers would be restored as people could buy/sell foreign currencies from other open currency shops. People have the options to trade with other currency dealers available in the market.
He said that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had suspended the lincense of the company for a period of 30 days. If this period were not extended, the company would resume its business activities. However, the procedure was to specify the allegations through an advertisement in the newspaper to intimate the company about its wrong doings.
Responding to a question on raids, he said that if any franchised company had been involved in some violations, the parent company had to take action against its subsidiary. However, it was premature to assume what was going to happen in future, he added.He added that the company would defend its case through a strong legal advisor. Presently, the staff of the company was very much confused in existing circumstances.