Ten commercial banks ink agreement with BB

A total of ten commercial banks signed participatory agreement with the Green Banking and CSR Department of central bank Thursday to disburse funds under a revolving re-financing scheme worth Tk 2.0 billion.

Other 22 commercial banks are expected to sign the same deal with the Bangladesh Bank (BB) within the current month to expedite financial inclusion programmes through providing loans to Tk 10 account holders.

After signing the deal, the banks will be identified as participating financial institutions (PFIs) of the fund, according to the central bank officials.

"We're expecting that the banks will start disbursing the re-financing fund to Tk 10 account holders across the country shortly," a BB senior official told the FE.

He also said the ten banks, which signed the deal, to disburse Tk 1.10 billion out of Tk 2.0 billion re-financing scheme.

General Manager of the Green Banking and CSR Department of central bank Abul Mansur Ahmed and chief executives of the commercial banks signed the deal on behalf of their respective organisations.

BB Governor Atiur Rahman, Deputy Governor SK Sur Chowdhury and other senior officials of the central bank attended the signing ceremony held at its headquarters in Dhaka.

Earlier on May 14 last, the central bank formed the revolving re-financing fund worth Tk 2.0 billion for strengthening financial inclusion programmes through providing loans to Tk 10 account holders.

As of June 2014, the number of Tk 10 account holders - who are mostly farmers, garment workers and social safety net beneficiaries - stood at more than 14 million.

 "We want to bring un-banked people in the banking network through strengthening the ongoing financial inclusion programme for facilitating their business activities across the country," another BB official said while explaining the main objective of the re-financing fund.

Marginal traders will be benefited from the re-fining scheme, the central banker added.

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.