The Pakistani rupee maintained its winning momentum against the US dollar in the open market on Wednesday, a gain that comes in tandem with the local currency’s improvement in the inter-bank.

Currency dealers Business Recorder reached out to said the rupee was quoted at 279 for selling and 276 for buying purposes for customers.

At the end of trading on Wednesday, the currency closed at the same rates, according to data provided by the Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan (ECAP). The rate is once again below the one in the inter-bank market.

The ongoing appreciation comes after the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) ramped up efforts to clip the wings of the high-flying dollar and announced a list of “structural reforms” last month, targeting the Exchange Companies (ECs).

Amid these measures, seven banks to date have announced that they will establish an Exchange Company (EC) as a wholly-owned subsidiary.

Apart from the central bank measures, the caretaker setup also announced taking administrative steps to tighten the screws around smuggling and hoarding of currency and as a result, countrywide raids were reported with dozens of illegal currency exchanges barred from running operations and foreign currency worth millions confiscated.

The SBP also suspended the authorisation of four exchange companies in the month of September alone.