Bangladesh Bank has stepped into the foreign exchange market again, selling $120 million to more than 15 commercial banks through an auction on Wednesday to hold the taka steady against a dollar that keeps pushing higher. The intervention matters well beyond the interbank dealing room. Every importer, exporter and remittance recipient in Bangladesh prices goods and transfers off this rate, and the central bank is now spending reserves to keep it from climbing further. 【What the auction did】 According to The Financial Express, the central bank sold the dollars at rates between Tk 124.3000 and Tk 124.3500 per US dollar. A senior BB official told the newspaper the sale went to more than 15 banks and was aimed at keeping the exchange rate stable. The same official said the central bank is intervening to narrow the gap between demand for and supply of US dollars in the market. The auction notice had originally been issued for $100 million, but the final sale came in at $120 million, according to the report. The central bank drew the money from its reserves. This is not a one-off. Just a week earlier, BB sold $122 million to eight banks through an auction on the same grounds. And on September 14 this year it sold $11.50 million to five banks at rates ranging from Tk 122.8000 to Tk 123.3500 per dollar — the country's first-ever auction-based dollar sale, the report notes. 【Why the dollar keeps climbing】 Market operators point to heavy import payment obligations, particularly the government's purchases of fuel, gas and power, as the force pushing up demand for the American currency, according to the report. That is a familiar chain in a import-dependent economy. When the state buys fuel, gas and electricity from abroad, it needs dollars at scale and on a schedule. Those bills land in the interbank market as demand, and if supply does not keep pace, the dollar price in taka rises. The central bank's answer is to top up supply directly, selling from reserves so banks can meet their clients' needs without the rate running away. An auction lets BB do this at a price it chooses rather than at whatever the market clears at. 【Who is exposed】 The immediate counterparties are the commercial banks that bought the dollars — more than 15 of them this time. Their corporate clients, especially importers of energy and industrial inputs, are the ones whose payment costs hinge on where the rate settles. On the other side sit exporters and remittance senders, whose taka receipts rise when the dollar is stronger. The auction rate effectively sets a reference point for both groups. Selling dollars from reserves to defend a rate is a finite tool; how often BB returns to the auction window tells you how persistent the demand pressure is. 【What to watch】 What it does show is a pattern: three auction-based sales in roughly two months, with the amounts and the rates both moving up. Anyone holding foreign currency accounts or dealing through a bank should also verify that rates quoted to them match the interbank range reported here, and confirm any transfer instructions through official bank channels rather than messages or calls claiming to be from the central bank.