Banks Hold Dollar Rates Steady After Central Bank Cancels Auction

Jun 14 , 2026.

The foreign exchange market opened the week with a contradiction. The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) withdrew from a forex auction after floating 100 million dollars, a decision that would normally have unsettled bank pricing boards. However, commercial banks adjusted posted dollar rates only in decimals and steps, treating the cancelled auction less as a licence to reprice than as a warning not to run ahead of the authorities.

Industry sources attributed the cancellation to high buying offers, claiming formal dollar demand may have been ready to clear at levels the Central Bank found uncomfortable. Officials gave no explanation, leaving banks to infer policy from silence. The average buying rate jumped from 156.85 Br on June 8 to 157.23 Br on June 13, 2026. The average selling rate increased from 159.89 Br to 160.27 Br. In both cases, the movement was less than 0.4 Br, or a quarter of one percent.

The average buying rate last week was 157.07 Br, while the average selling rate was 160.11 Br.

Banks competed by nudging the base quote while leaving the margin intact. On June 13, Oromia Bank posted the highest buying rate, at 162.73 Br, unchanged throughout the week. Hijra Bank posted the lowest, at 154.1 Br, also unchanged. That left an 8.63 Br gap. On the selling side, Oromia Bank again led at 165.99 Br, while Hijra offered the lowest selling quote at 157.18 Br, leaving an 8.81 Br range.

Oromia Bank was the clearest outlier, holding quotes more than five Birr above the week's averages on a high plateau, not a daily crawl.

Below Oromia Bank, an upper-tier hardened, where Wegagen Bank held its buying quote at 159.62 Br and its selling quote at 162.81 Br for all six days. Goh Betoch moved to 159.58 Br after June 9 and stayed there. Berhan Bank remained fixed at 159.35 Br. The line marked "ZamZam Bank" closed at 159.34 Br, while the accompanying market note listed Zemen Bank at 159.34 Br.

Bank of Abyssinia lifted its buying quote from 155.2 Br on June 8 to 156.01 Br on June 13. Dashen Bank raised its quote from 155 Br to 155.61 Br, while Awash Bank raised its quote from 155.1 Br to 155.65 Br.

The state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) occupied the lower band. It increased its buying rate from 154.4 Br to 154.81 Br, a 0.41 Br move, and its selling rate from 157.49 Br to 157.91 Br. Using the industry average of 157.36 Br for the week, CBE was about 2.55 Br below the market on the buying side. Against the June 13 average of 157.23 Br, it was still 2.41 Br lower. Like some of its peers, CBE offers top-up bonuses on dollars it buys, creating a less transparent effective price while keeping a low rate. Its buying rate rose from 157.97 Br on June 8 to 158.69 Br on June 13, after briefly touching 158.84 Br on June 11.

By Saturday, the Central Bank’s rate was 4.60 Br higher than Hijra Bank's floor and nearly 3.88 Br above CBE’s buying quote. In a liberalised market, a Central Bank reference would be expected to anchor pricing. Here, it functioned more as a reference point than a binding guide. Several commercial banks posted below it, while Oromia and Wegagen banks stood above it. The dispersion points to a segmented market, where banks balance liquidity needs, customer mix, regulatory caution and reputation.

Nib Bank lifted its buying rate by 1.58 Br, from 154.22 Br to 155.8 Br. Sidama Bank jumped by one Birr to 158.44 Br, and Cooperative Bank of Oromia (Coop Bank) increased by 0.87 Br. The Bank of Abyssinia increased by 0.81 Br. Tsedey also moved by about 0.80 Br, although its path included a June 10 anomaly, when its spread widened to 2.65pc before returning to the standard two percent.

Hijra, Tsehay, Amhara, and Gadaa banks did not change their buying rates last week. This group held down the lower band, either because it had limited appetite for cash dollars at higher prices, relied on non-price incentives, or was unwilling to invite regulatory attention by lifting official quotes too quickly.

If bids were indeed far above the authorities’ comfort zone, the NBE’s withdrawal can be read as an attempt to stop a higher clearing price from becoming the new official reference. Banks appear to have understood the message. They did not reprice aggressively. They kept boards stable, allowed incremental increases and preserved the two percent spread convention. The official market absorbed the policy shock without obvious stress.

A lower informal rate reduces the urgency for banks to lift cash quotes, especially if customers expect the gap between official and informal prices to narrow. It also gives the Central Bank political cover to resist validating high auction bids. The Birr (Brewed Buck) was not moving through a single foreign exchange market, but through overlapping markets, each sending a different signal.

The official cash market was signalling managed depreciation, not capitulation. The Birr weakened slightly against the dollar over six days, but the adjustment was slow, uneven and contained. Oromia Bank remained the outlier at the top, Hijra remained the floor, Wegagen, Goh, Berhan and the 159 Br group formed the upper tier, and CBE and several low banks anchored the bottom. The most revealing action came from mid-tier banks that crawled upward while the market waited for the Central Bank’s next move.

PUBLISHED ON Jun 14,2026 [ VOL 27 , NO 1363]