November 21

 

Information of the people who made up to K100 million transactions from banks are reportedly being watched over by the Central Bank of Myanmar, Bureau of Special Investigation and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).

 

"There will be precise action on them if they are involved in the financial market," said Dr. Lin Aung, vice-chair of the junta's Central Bank of Myanmar in an interview with the state-owned newspaper New Light of Myanmar.

 

"We put the money in the bank after we sold our apartment and we paid a deposit for the land that we're going to buy this month. So, we had to withdraw the money from the bank anyway, and I'm a little bit worried about that," said a resident of Yangon.

 

The CBM's vice chair even said people who jostled at the bank and withdrew all their money would have been robbed if they kept the money in their hand.

 

"Yoma bank in Myeik town only allowed you to withdraw K1.5 million for my special account (banks offer their customers a special account that can withdraw unlimited amounts of money). Other banks allowed only K1 million. We opened that account so that we can withdraw any amount we want," said a local resident from Myeik.

 

Although the CBM announced to trust domestic banks and not to trust rumors, the number of people who withdraw money from the banks continues to grow. But they were only allowed limited withdrawal from their accounts.

 

Locals claimed that they have been facing difficulties in withdrawing money back since February, 2021 and many are concerned that they would soon be charged with service fees for every withdrawal transactions.

 

Caption: People lining up at the ATMs in Yangon.