DBH and National Housing
Just after coming into power the new coalition government reduced the bank rate from 7 to 6 per cent and again by 1 per cent recently. Reciprocating the government move, the bankers decided to lower interest rates on both lending and deposits by 1 percentage point. The new decision would bring down the average lending rate from 12.8 per cent to 11.8 per cent.But the two private house building financing institutions DBH and National Housing, taking advantage of a monopolistic situation, remained defiant to reduce their interest rates and continue to charge clients at 15.75 per cent against highly secured lending.
This week the National Housing, as a mere consolatory measure, has decided to cut interest for the prime clients by a very nominal 1.50 per cent to 14.25 per cent and for the general clients by 1 per cent to 14.75 per cent . DBH is yet to announce any such cut in its lending rates.However, this decision to bring down the lending rate by a single digit does not fulfil the expectations of thousands of borrowers around the country, most of whom are fixed salaried people.
As operations of these two financial institutions, created under Bangladesh Bank order, has grown by leaps and bounds in the last five years , so they should be brought under Bangladesh bank regulations as a banking entity in greater public interest.
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