Banking & Commodity

Many banks in Bangladesh have reined in opening most of the letters of credit (LC), including for importing daily necessities, due to the ongoing crisis of foreign currencies in the country. Even with the dollars coming from remittances and export earnings, the bank authorities are unable to pay their import …

Dhaka, Nov 16: Bangladesh Bank has allowed mobile financial service (MFS) providers to repatriate (conversion of foreign currency into local currency) export income and inward remittance, reports UNB. All authorised dealers will provide encashment certificate to MFS providers against inward remittance, on account of information technology enabled services (ITES) exports. …

Bangladesh Bank is seeking to curtail the powers of the banks’ board of directors to waive interest on loans without consultations with the relevant departments. The central bank’s Banking Regulations and Policy Department on Wednesday issued a circular in this regard. It instructed the banks in case of interest waiver …

Flour mills in eight northern districts of Rangpur division are struggling to continue production as wheat has become scarce in international markets amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, two major exporters of the cereal grain. Bangladesh largely depends on imports to satisfy its domestic demand for wheat as …

The Association of Bankers, Bangladesh (ABB), a platform of managing directors of banks in Bangladesh, yesterday said depositors’ money in banks were completely protected as lenders were now enjoying a hefty amount of excess liquidity. “There is no reason to panic regarding the deposits kept in banks by the masses,” …

The Asian Development Bank has approved a $200 million loan to strengthen microfinance in Bangladesh, supporting microenterprises, particularly those owned by women and those located in regions with high climate risks. The Microenterprise Financing and Credit Enhancement Project will increase the liquidity of microfinance institutions (MFIs), which are key lenders …

Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder on Tuesday urged the country’s microfinance institutions to reduce interest rates on microcredit lending. “Making profits from the loans disbursed among the poor is unethical and the interest rates should be cut down …,” said the BB governor, while addressing as the chief …

Retailers in Bangladesh are feeling the pinch as consumers have been buying less for the last few months because of the continuous increase in the prices of daily necessities and growing uncertainty. Bangladesh has been facing a major macroeconomic crisis since late February after the Russia-Ukraine war began, which sent …

The Bangladesh Bank on Tuesday raised the interest rate for loans from its export development fund (EDF) by 1 percentage point in a bid to make borrowing costlier and thus save foreign currencies. As per the new decision, the manufacturer-exporters will have to pay 4 per cent interest annually for …

The visiting IMF delegation and the Bangladesh authorities have reached a staff-level agreement to support Bangladesh’s economic policies with a 42-month arrangement of about US$ 3.2 billion under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) as well as of about US$1.3 billion under the Resilience and …