Tk 2b fund for Tk 10 account holders

The central bank has formed a revolving re-financing fund of Tk 2.0 billion for strengthening financial inclusion programmes through providing loans to Tk 10 account holders, officials said Wednesday.

"We've formed the fund aiming to bring un-banked people in the banking network for facilitating their business activities," M Mahfuzur Rahman, executive director and spokesperson of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), told the FE.

He also said, "We expect that marginal traders are benefited from the re-financing scheme."

Under the scheme, the banks are allowed to disburse the collateral-free loan to the Tk 10 account holders at maximum 12 per cent interest while the non-government organisations (NGOs) will charge up to 19 per cent interest.

The central bank will provide the fund to the commercial banks at the rate of 5.0 per cent interest.

The central bank issued a circular in this connection Wednesday and asked the chief executive officers and managing directors of all scheduled banks for taking necessary measures to provide such loan.

One single borrower can borrow maximum Tk 50,000 under the scheme, according to the circular.

Earlier on January 17, 2010, the BB asked the state-owned banks to open bank accounts for the farmers with a nominal deposit of Tk 10. Later, different categories of people were included in the programme.

As of March 2014, the number of Tk 10 account holders - who are mostly farmers, city corporation cleaning workers and social safety net beneficiaries - stood at nearly 13.90 million.