Bank 'in dark' on $11 bn

The governor was addressing MPs who were examining media reports about the World Bank’s refusal to cancel outstanding debts “due to money sitting in private accounts abroad”.

Myanmar has $7.6 billion in foreign reserve money in foreign banks connected with the Central Bank, the state bank and private banks. It had used the foreign exchange reserves to pay daily business and trading transactions in overseas and business dealings, the bank’s governor said.

As of September 10, the total cash balance left in foreign bank accounts and local bank accounts was about US$7.6 billion, according to the governor.

“We don’t know anything about the stashed [$11 billion]. The stash and the cash balance [of $7.6 billion] left in foreign bank accounts and local bank accounts are not connected,” the governor said.

Minister of Finance and Revenue Win Shein said the media reports which stated the World Bank was refusing to cancel its debts due to the money kept in the five private foreign accounts, were untrue. He said Jelson Garcia, a manager of the Asia Programme run by the World Bank, revealed the story. He continued that Garcia’s comments were not representative of the World Bank and did not properly clarify the government’s use of foreign exchange reserves for overseas business and trading transactions. The Ministry had therefore arranged a press conference to clarify the issue.