AKM Zamir Uddin

Agent banking, which takes banking services to the unbanked people, is going from strength to strength, with both deposit collection and loan disbursement on the rise.

Defaulted loans crept up last year despite the government’s attempts to subdue them -- by hook or by crook.

Standard Chartered is bullish about the fortunes of its Islamic banking business, Saadiq, in the country, seeing the religious bent of the Bangladeshis and the economy’s tremendous growth momentum, said the global head of the lender’s Shariah-based arm.

Expatriate Bangladeshis in Malaysia, the fifth highest source of remittance for the country, would soon be able to send in money to their near and dear ones at home on a real time basis thanks to a novel arrangement between Malaysian fintech firm Valyou, British bank Standard Chartered and local mobile financial service platform bKash.

The majority of banks have already implemented the 6 per cent interest rate on their fixed deposit schemes (FDR) as part of their preparation to provide loans at 9 per cent interest in a couple of months’ time.

The rot starts at the top, it is often said. And it is this pandemic that the central bank is looking to tackle in the new Banking Companies Act.

Bangladesh’s trade deficit widened slightly in the first half of the fiscal year on the back of sluggish exports, in a worrying development for the government.

Banks rescheduled a record amount of defaulted loans last year as part of their efforts to contain bad debt and show hefty profit.

The government is homing in on forming a public asset management company (PAMC), a brainchild of Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, as part of its efforts to redress the financial sector that is fast approaching a losing battle against default loans.

Private sector credit growth dropped to the lowest since 2008 in December last year, in continuation of its downward trend of the previous 21 months.

The long-promised single-digit interest rate is now seeming more and more likely as the banks yesterday agreed to provide not more than 6 percent for savings from February 1 as part of their preparation to usher in 9 percent lending rate from April.

The term habitual defaulter is often thrown around casually, without any proper definition. But the government has now spelt out what habitual default is in a draft act, in what can be viewed as a commendable act by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.

Shahinur Parvej, who owns a grocery shop in the capital’s Mirpur area, never thought he would require a loan from any bank or non-banking financial institution (NBFI) to expand his business. However, his stance has now changed.

The central bank is planning to sweep the bulging stressed assets under the rug when it publishes its annual financial stability report in April such that it can paint a rosy picture of the banking sector.

The central bank has given the go-ahead to set up a new non-bank financial institution (NBFI) in its last board meeting -- a move that has stumped experts and industry insiders given the poorly state of sector.

Trade deficit narrowed 79.51 percent in November to $1.06 billion from the previous month on the back of sliding imports -- a worrying development as it suggests of sluggishness of the economy.

Businesses and bankers often blame political instability for sliding private sector credit growth. But it was calm as the smoothest waters on the political front last year after the polls on December 30, 2018 and yet the slide did not stop.

Interest waiver against bad loans more than doubled to Tk 858 crore in the first nine months of 2019 -- an indication of the desperation of banks to bring down their default loans by any means.

Sadrul Hasan Ripon’s dream of building his own home on a piece of land he purchased in Keraniganj six years ago is set to materialise now thanks to the slash in interest rate to single-digit for borrowing from April 1.

Anxiety gripped Ahmed Kabir the instant he learnt from the morning paper yesterday that the government has decided to fix a uniform interest rate for all types of deposits from April 1.