Market Operation Department

Vision: Having a regular system for the foreign exchange reserves management, aiming to preserve capital, ensure foreign exchange liquidity, obtain appropriate provisions and effectively implement monetary policy for maintaining Afghani price stability.

Mission: Managing foreign exchange reserves, implementing monetary policy by conducting regular foreign exchange and capital notes auctions, providing necessary banking facilities, issuing letters of credit to government and semi-government offices and releasing official foreign exchange rates in accordance with the established procedures are among the missions of this department.

Objectives:

MOD has the following objectives:

• Effectively implement monetary policy;

• Manage international foreign exchange reserves;

• Provide sufficient foreign currency liquidity;

• Provide Letters of Credit facilities to the government and semi government institutions;

• Provide necessary banking facilities for the relevant departments of Da Afghanistan Bank and eligible banks; and

• Regular release of the official exchange rate.

Structure:

Market Operations Department has 22 staff and is segregated to the following 5 sections in accordance with their terms of duties.

1. Foreign Exchange Reserves Management Section

Main duties of this section are to:

•  Manage and invest foreign exchange reserves and prepare periodic reports about them;

• Maintain regular contacts with correspondent banks and relevant foreign financial institutions;

• Ensure availability of enough foreign exchange reserves for fulfilling liquidity needs;

• Coordinate investment committees’ meetings; and

• Oversee performance of investments and deposits.

2. Foreign Exchange Reserves Risk Analysis Section

Main duties of this section are to:

• Conduct risk management of foreign exchange reserves;

• Prepare periodic analytical reports on the risks of foreign exchange reserves;

• Research on international markets and investment opportunities for foreign exchange reserves; and

• Perform rebalancing of index portfolios periodically.

3.  Foreign Currency Auction and Exchange Rate Section

Main duties of this section are to:

• Prepare the official exchange rates and respond to queries of relevant institutions on this;

• Perform regular surveys from the markets on foreign exchange rate related matters;

• Conduct foreign currency auctions as per the relevant regulation and procedure; and

• Communicate with auction participants, national and international institutions on auction related matters.

4.  Capital Notes and Banking Facilities Section

Main duties of this section are to:

• Manage capital notes auctions and acceptance of securities and banking products pursuant to relevant regulation and procedures;

• Oversee secondary market of capital notes as per the regulation;

• Provide banking facilities for the relevant departments and eligible banks; and

• Adjust the required reserves and process other obligations of financial institutions as per the relevant procedures.

5.  Letters of Credit Section

Main duties of this section are to:

• Issue letters of credit to government and semi government institutions and report on their status;

• Provide facilities for amendments, termination and payments of letters of credit; and

• Communicate on LC relevant matters with the relevant authorities and correspondent banks.