Business Desk :
Bangladesh Bank (BB) has issued a directive significantly reducing the required loan provisioning rates for banks handling specific credit lines in the agricultural and CMSME sectors, aiming to encourage greater participation by banks in disbursing these credits.
To this end, the central bank on Monday issued a circular, instructing all banks to maintain provision at the rate of 1 percent against all unclassified standard and Special Mention Account (SMA) Short Term Agricultural Credits and Cottage, Micro and Small (CMS) enterprise credits under CMSME sector till 31 December 2026, , reports BSS.
All other instructions of earlier circular and its subsequent modifications will remain unchanged. Earlier, banks are required to maintain provisions at the rate of 1 percent and 5 percent of outstanding loans against standard and SMA respectively.
Additionally, the central bank is going to introduce interoperable payment system from November 1 allowing instant transfers from mobile wallets, bank accounts, non-bank accounts, or institutional accounts directly to any other account to reduce cash transactions across the country.
To this end, the central bank on Monday issued a circular instructing all banks, Mobile Financial Service (MFS) providers and Payment Service Providers (PSPs) to utilize the National Payment Switch of Bangladesh (NPSB) infrastructure to facilitate these interconnected live transactions.
According to the circular, sending bank, MFS and PSPs can take maximum 0.15 percent, 0.20 percent or 0.85 percent charges or fees respectively including VAT for transaction under interoperable system.Â
No fee or charge may be collected from the recipient of the funds. The applicable fee must be collected solely from the sender’s account and must be clearly displayed to the customer before the fund transfer is executed.
For fund transfers carried out under the interoperable system, defined transaction limits will apply. These limits will vary based on the type of account held with the respective bank, PSP, or MFS provider.
For interbank fund transfers conducted via the internet banking fund transfer method under the NPSB framework, the fees outlined in PSD Circular No.-02 dated February 06, 2025, will remain applicable.
