DHAKA, April 13, 2026 (BSS) - Bangladesh Bank (BB) is set to officially launch two new transaction-based money market reference rates -- Bangladesh Overnight Financing Rate (BOFR) and Dhaka Overnight Money Market Rate (DOMMR) -- starting April 15.

The initiative, modeled after the international Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR), aims to enhance transparency, reliability and effectiveness in the country's money market.

The Debt Management Department of the central bank shared these details during a press conference held today at its headquarters in the city.

Bangladesh Bank Assistant Spokesperson Shahriar Siddiqui and Director of the Debt Management Department Istequemal Hussain spoke at the press conference. 

They mentioned that the central bank will introduce these two benchmarks to provide a more accurate reflection of market conditions based on actual transactions rather than quotes. 

BOFR will serve as a risk-free reference rate, calculated based on interbank repo (secured) transactions conducted on the Financial Market Infrastructure (FMI) platform.

DOMMR will be an unsecured money market reference rate, derived from interbank transactions on the Electronic Dealing System for Interbank Money Market (EDSMoney) platform.

Initially, BOFR will be published for overnight and one-week tenors, while DOMMR will cover overnight, one-week, one-month and three-month tenors.

Since 2010, the Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers Association (BAFEDA) has published the Dhaka Interbank Offered Rate (DIBOR). 

However, Istequemal Hussain noted that DIBOR often fails to reflect real market conditions because it is based on offered rates provided by member institutions rather than actual trades.

Furthermore, he mentioned that many banks do not provide this data regularly or voluntarily. 

The new BOFR and DOMMR rates will solve these limitations by using automated calculations based on actual transaction data stored in the central bank's systems, he added.

He said that the rates will be determined using a volume-weighted mean of interest rates and transaction volumes. 

To ensure accuracy, he said, statistical methods will be applied to reduce the impact of outliers. 

He also noted that the central bank has set specific criteria for calculation.

"Overnight BOFR will consider all interbank repo transactions from the previous three working days, requiring a minimum of 10 transactions. Overnight DOMMR will be based on the previous working day's transactions, also requiring a minimum of 10 trades," he added.

If the minimum transaction count is not met for any tenor, he said, a probing window method will be used, incorporating data from previous working days until the requirement is satisfied.

In his speech, Shahriar Siddiqui said that the central bank expects these new benchmarks to become essential price indicators for various financial contracts, including loan agreements, bonds and floating-rate products like derivatives. 

By aligning with international standards, he mentioned that the central bank anticipates the new framework will increase market depth and stability while attracting more foreign investors through improved transparency. 

Starting April 15, he said, these rates will be published daily on the Bangladesh Bank website every morning, providing stakeholders with a reliable indicator to manage risk and value financial products.