BB offers $60m OD facility to two SCBs

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The central bank provided US$60 million overdraft (OD) facilities to two state-owned commercial banks (SCBs) in the last couple of days to help them settle of fuel oil and fertiliser import bills, officials said.

"We've provided the SCBs such facilities against government approved securities to settle import payment bills for petroleum products and fertiliser," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE Wednesday.

He also said each of the SCB has received $30 million to settle import bills.

This amount was in addition to the OD facility for $7.0 million provided Monday to another SCB for paying fuel import bills.

The central bank will continue to give such foreign currency support to the commercial banks particularly to the SCBs mainly for making import payments against petroleum products and essential items including food grains and fertiliser, according to the official.

The BB has continued its intervention in the inter-bank foreign exchange market by directly selling and buying of the US dollar and providing short term facilities to the banks aiming to keep the foreign exchange market stable, they added.