Long-term USD loan facility for exporters

Eighteen private commercial banks yesterday signed a deal with the Bangladesh Bank (BB) to avail funds from the central bank's long-term financing facility (BB-LTFF) for export-oriented manufacturing companies.

The banks are Mutual Trust Bank, City Bank, Bank Asia, Jamuna Bank, UCB, Southeast Bank, Trust Bank, NCC Bank, Premier Bank, Pubali Bank, Midland Bank, Shahjalal Islami Bank, Exim Bank, Standard Bank, Prime Bank, Dhaka Bank, Brac Bank and Eastern Bank.

The banks signed the deal with the central bank in a programme held yesterday at the BB headquarters.

Before the move, the central bank unveiled a long-term financing facility for private sector firms, mainly export-oriented manufacturers, to help them borrow in US dollars to purchase equipment and services needed to run sustainable operations.

Under the BB-LTFF, loans, which could be as high as $10 million, will be offered in the US currency, as per BB guidelines.

The central bank unveiled the new fund as the financial sector support project (FSSP), a joint initiative of the World Bank and Bangladesh Bank, expired recently.

Under the FSSP project, the country's banks financed $273.76 million to 56 companies in the industrial sector and $115 million of the disbursed funds have already been recovered, said a senior official of the central bank.

He said that the BB started the refinance fund with the recovered $115 million.

A borrower can apply for BB-LTFF for any amount not exceeding a maximum threshold limit of $5 million through a single PFI and for any amount not exceeding a maximum threshold limit of $10 million under syndicated financing through two or more PFIs.

The maturity of the loans will be three to 10 years, including the grace period.

The grace period will not be more than one year.

An indicative pricing range of 180-day average SOFR plus 0.25 to 1.25 percent would be applicable to the PFIs.