An investigation has been launched into the sudden decision by the Bank of Maldives (BML) to halt foreign transactions on cards linked to Maldivian Rufiyaa accounts, after allegations surfaced that it was an attempted coup.

This was revealed by the Maldives Police Service (MPS) via a statement released on Monday evening.

As such, the police institution revealed that the announcement made by the country’s national bank for which a majority of shares are held by the government, on Monday came as a shock to the public and coincided with a press conference held by some politicians revolving around the incumbent administration’s financial situation.

MPS noted that the BML’s decision would cause several inconveniences to the public and was announced against the government’s discussions and at the same time, “hundreds” of “bot” accounts on social media began encouraging the public to take to the streets to overthrow the government.

The statement goes on to read that MPS has launched an investigation into the incident, as there is room to believe that there was an attempt to illegally overthrow a lawful administration, after disrupting public peace and compromising national security.

In an earlier press conference, the government announced that BML’s decision was made against the discussions held regarding the matter.

After churning public chaos with its decision to suspend foreign transactions through debit cards, BML took a U-turn on the decision mere hours later.

In a publication on Sunday evening, the country’s national bank confirmed that the changes to card limits for foreign transactions announced earlier on Sunday, have been reversed based on instructions from their regulator, the central bank, Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA).

BML revealed that the changes were initially brought in response to the increasing use of foreign currency on cards and the static scale of foreign currency to BML.

As such, the allowance for foreign transactions for existing debit cards linked to Maldivian Rufiyaa accounts was suspended. Allowances for foreign transactions for new debit and credit cards linked to MVR accounts were also suspended and the monthly limit for foreign transactions on existing standard and gold credit cards was limited to USD 100.