Central Bank threatens to prosecute Afghans who continue to trade online

Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) on Thursday said they will prosecute Afghans who fail to abide by the ban on online forex trading.

In June, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) banned online trading, declaring it against Sharia.

On Thursday, DAB issued a statement reinforcing this order, adding that Afghans, specifically in Kabul, are still trading.

The central bank said it has not granted a license to any person or company to trade online and those who continue to do so are breaking the law.

Last month, a central bank spokesman said: “Da Afghanistan Bank considers online forex trading illegal and fraudulent, and there is no instruction in Islamic law to approve it.”

Reports at the time indicated that the precarious economic climate in the country had pushed many Afghans to turn to online forex, commodity or cryptocurrency trading.

While there is no specific data on how many people trade forex online, the central bank official told Bloomberg last month that “millions of dollars” are traded daily, mainly by the currency traders in Sara-e Shahzada, the largest foreign exchange market in Kabul.