DHAKA, June 7, 2018 (BSS) – Finance Minister AMA Muhith today said the country’s financial sector is maintaining admirable stability as the government has taken various initiatives to make the sector more vibrant.
“With a few exceptions, the financial sector maintained admirable stability which has contributed to the socio-economic progress of the country,” he said, while unveiling the budget for the next fiscal 2018-19 (FY19) in the Jatiya Sangsad here.
Recently, the finance minister said, in the context of liquidity imbalance in the banking sector, several steps, including re-fixing the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), have been taken.
In addition to this, he said, it has been possible to remedy systemic failure to have removed the stalemate that existed in the banking sector by reconstituting the management structure and the Board of Farmers Bank which restored customers’ confidence.
Alongside the application of existing rules, he said, important directives have been issued together with some relevant actions to bring back discipline in financial sector.
The directives including, not changing interest rates more than once in a month , limiting the weighted average of interest rate spread between loans and deposits to 5 per cent, limiting the loan application fee to Taka 200 for Cottage, Micro, Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (CMSME) and not applying any charge for adjustment on maturity of loans, operating support funds for affected small investors in the capital market, launching specialized software for monitoring large loan default, issuing guidelines for fair agent banking, limiting the balance amount at maximum Taka three lakh in a single person’s mobile account in the case of Mobile Financial System (MFS), issuing of guidelines for Uniform KYC (Know Your Customer) Profile in insurance companies or corporations and providing different loan facilities at a low interest rate with easy terms under various refinancing schemes.