Subscription closure ceremony of first housing bond

BRAC Bank has organised a subscription closure ceremony for its Affordable Housing Bond subscribed by International Finance Corporation (IFC), says a statement.

The Bangladesh's first-ever housing bond is aimed at providing affordable housing loans to low and middle-income urban and rural families across the country.

IFC made a subscription of up to $50 million-equivalent Bangladeshi taka denominated, non-convertible, privately placed, redeemable, unsecured and fixed coupon bearing and five-year senior bond, which will help BRAC Bank expand its affordable housing finance programme.

Selim RF Hussain, Managing Director & CEO, BRAC Bank, handed over the bond certificate to Martin Holtmann, Country Manager, Bangladesh, Bhutan & Nepal, IFC, at a ceremony at the bank's head office in Dhaka recently.

Md Shaheen Iqbal, CFA, Deputy Managing Director and Head of Treasury &Financial Institutions; Syed Abdul Momen, Deputy Managing Director& Head of SME Banking; Md. Mahiul Islam, Head of Retail Banking; BRAC Bank and Ehsanul Azim, Principal Investment Officer and Country Anchor for Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka; and Ayesha Baig, Senior Operations officer-FIG Upstream; and other senior officials of both the organisations were also present.

With affordable housing loan facility, the people across the country will be able to take home loan for building and renovating pucca and semi pucca houses. This facility is expected to expand housing, construction and its ancillary industries.

Through this initiative, IFC and BRAC Bank jointly demonstrate a commercially viable lending product that caters to the housing finance needs of households belonging to low and middle-income household, promote inclusive development and create thousands of new jobs.