DHAKA, June 21, 2018 (BSS) – The Bangladesh Association of Banks (BAB) at a
meeting here today sought the support of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) to bring
down the lending rate to single digit from July 1.
The meeting was held at the central bank headquarters in the city with BB
Governor Fazle Kabir in the chair.
A 13-member BAB delegation, led by its chairman Nazrul Islam Mazumder,
attended the meeting, a BB official said.
He said the BAB leaders informed the governor of their decision formally
and sought support of the central bank officials to lower the interest rates.
On Wednesday, BAB decided to bring down the lending rate to single digit
and deposit rate of three-month tenure to six percent from next month (July
1).
BAB took the decision as per instruction of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
for accelerating the country’s development activities.
Earlier in April, the government slashed cash reserve requirement or CRR of
banks by one percentage point to 5.5 percent for the benefit of private
commercial banks. Finance minister AMA Muhith has also proposed to reduce the
corporate tax rate for banks and financial institutions (FIs) by 2.5 percent
in the budget for FY19.