Oyetunji Abioye
The Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday introduced new rules into the interbank foreign exchange market.

This came barely one week after the naira closed below 370/dollar on the parallel market.

The rules were contained in a new circular tagged, “Further liberalisation of the interbank foreign exchange market,’’ and signed by the Director, Financial Markets, Dr. Alvan Ikoku.

Among other things, the regular said authorised dealers in the interbank were meant to put only N1 spread on their transactions.

It also said that authorised dealers in the forex market could now defease their excess foreign currency trading positions to other authorised dealers in the market without seeking prior approval from the CBN

It read in part, “All authorised dealers shall be subject to a maximum spread of N1. Funds purchased by an authorised dealer from another dealer on the interbank market shall not be held in position overnight by the buying authorised dealer or sold to another authorised dealer.”