International financial institutions will now question the credibility of the Bank of Maldives (BML) after allegations of an attempted coup by the Mohamed Muizzu administration, Ibrahim Ameer, the Minister of Finance during the Ibrahim Mohamed Solih administration, has said.
A criminal investigation has now been launched regarding BML’s decision to severely restrict US dollar support to Rufiyaa (MVR) accounts, which administration officials have called a “financial coup.”
The decision by BML was announced and reversed within hours on Sunday after an intervention by the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) amidst significant public outcry.
Ameer, during a press conference by the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), said that such an accusation coming directly from President Mohamed Muizzu meant that the board and management of BML have now effectively become suspected criminals.
“So now, how other international financial institutions will view the Bank of Maldives is something we have to consider,” Ameer bemoaned, while pointing out that the administration should consider the consequences should correspondent banks stop providing services to the Maldives. Correspondent banks, for the most part, are overseas financial institutions which are authorised to provide third-party services on behalf of another financial institution.
Muizzu had earlier described BML’s decision, which had foreseeably given rise to escalating public outcry for hours after it was made public—until it was reversed on instructions from the MMA—as a premeditated action against the administration.
“What was done, anyone with common sense would know that all these dots are connected, what was done is, just as Shiyam [Minister of Fisheries and Ocean Resources] also pointed out, an attempted coup, by those who did what they did [on Sunday],” he said.
While Muizzu has said that Maldives Police service will be conducting an independent investigation into the incident, no arrests have yet been made and nor has anyone been questioned.
