BKB, RAKUB urged to intensify fresh agri credit disbursement

FE Team | Published: September 21, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has asked two state-owned specialised banks to intensify disbursement of fresh agricultural credit to the flood-hit farmers across the country, official sources said.
The instruction came at a review meeting of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) held at the conference room in the central bank Thursday with the BB Governor Salehuddin Ahmed in the chair.
The managing directors (MDs) of two specialised banks - Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB) and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB) - and the central bank high officials attended the meeting.
Earlier, the BB signed the MoU with the banks to improve their financial performance. The central bank will provide policy supports to the banks.
The meeting reviewed various issues, including credit growth, recovery of default loans, cost of fund and implementation of the core risk management guidelines in line with the conditions laid down by the MoU.
The central bank also instructed the banks to limit their investment to the agriculture sector only, the sources added.
"We have asked the banks to expedite their disbursement of the agricultural credit to the flood-affected farmers," a BB senior official told the FE Thursday.
He also said the central bank also directed the banks for taking measures to ensure disbursement of the agro-credit to the cultivators without any harassment.
The BB earlier relaxed the existing rules and regulations to allow flood-hit farmers to take fresh credit through rescheduling their previous classified loans.
On September 09 last, the central bank directed eight state-owned banks and financial institutions for taking necessary measures to achieve agro-credit disbursement target by the end of this fiscal.
The BB has set the credit target at Tk 76.98 billion, which includes Tk 10.78 billion from private, local and foreign banks and the rest from state-owned commercial banks for disbursement among flood-affected farmers across the country.