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Business Insider Bangladesh

Exporters can avail soft loans as BB inks deal with 49 banks

BI Report || BusinessInsider

Published: 19:57, 30 January 2023   Update: 20:29, 30 January 2023
Exporters can avail soft loans as BB inks deal with 49 banks

Bangladesh Bank signage. Photo: Collected

The central bank has entered into agreements with 49 commercial banks for the disbursement of loans from its Tk 10,000 crore Export Facilitation Pre-finance Fund (EFPF).

Under the "Participation Agreements", the banks will be providing loans to exporters in local currency for the purchase of raw materials.

The interest rate of the loans from the EFPF will be 4 percent and the tenure will be 180 days. However, the participating banks must pay 1.5 percent interest on loans of the pre-finance fund to the central bank.

Banks are not allowed to collect other types of charges or fees can be collected from customers except the ones mentioned in the existing schedule of charges issued by the Bangladesh Bank.

Maqsuda Begum, director, Banking Regulations and Policy Department, Bangladesh Bank, and managing directors of the signatory banks signed the agreement on Monday.

Addressing the agreement signing ceremony, BB Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder said he strongly believes the fund will contribute significantly to the development of the country's export sector given the economic fallout of Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war.

He said the funding activities of EFPF will start soon.

For the time being, no more funds will be created from foreign exchange reserves, the governor also noted.

The size of the Export Development Fund (EDF) will be reduced gradually by adjusting the amount and a $1 billion adjustment has already been made to EDF, he added.

Nagad
Walton