Banks get more room to lend
Banks will get some room to disburse more loans after the central bank yesterday revised its two guidelines.
The two guidelines -- risk-based capital adequacy and calculation method of loan-deposit ratio -- will also help banks slightly mitigate their ongoing liquidity crisis.
From now on banks will be allowed to keep statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) and cash reserve ratio (CRR) against the surplus amount of subordinated bond.
A bank's surplus amount of subordinated bond is the amount that is raised from issuing such bond after it deducts the invested amount in similar bonds of other banks, said a central bank notice. If the bank's net investment in the bond is negative then it will not be considered as net liability for determining the CRR and the SLR.
Now, banks will also be allowed to show the net investment of the bond as deposits while calculating the loan-deposit ratio. Previously, the central bank didn't take into account the net investment in subordinated bonds while calculating the loan-deposit ratio.
Banks will get a space of 0.30 percent to calculate the loan-deposit ratio, a BB official told The Daily Star.
The Association of Bankers, Bangladesh, a platform of the chief executives of the private banks, has long been demanding a revision of the guidelines to ease the liquidity crunch in the banking sector.
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