Bangladesh Bank yesterday unveiled a wishy-washy monetary policy for the next six months that will prove to be ineffective in tackling the headwinds passing through the economy.

Bangladesh Bank yesterday granted Sri Lanka’s request to be given six more months to repay a $200 million loan due to the prolonging of its economic crisis. 

Islami Bank has started to avail a central bank facility that is only summoned during extraordinary circumstances, as the Shariah-based lender looked to dress up its balance sheet ahead of the year’s end.

Bangladesh Bank, which is supposed to oversee the governance of the country’s financial institutions, has rather supported these irregular activities through its policies and actions.

Investigation into financial irregularities the first step forward

Lack of accountability and the culture of impunity destroyed governance from within.

The default-loan narrative has smeared our otherwise powerful story of graduation from the Least Developed Country (LDC) status.

In a time of elevated inflation, the government has started to borrow heavily from the Bangladesh Bank to meet the budget deficit, in a move that is set to push up the consumer price level further.

The Bangladesh Bank has allowed banks to help students who are studying in China pay their tuition fees.

Bangladesh Bank (BB) today relaxed its rule to facilitate lending for establishment of coal-based power plants and buy the dirty fuel to generate electricity.

PM’s call in this regard is a welcome one

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday instructed Bangladesh Bank to intervene if any bank faced a dollar shortage while opening letters of credit for importing food, fertiliser and other agricultural inputs to ensure uninterrupted food supply.

The Bangladesh Bank yesterday raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 5.75 per cent as it stepped up its fight against inflation, which is running at a multi-year high.  

The economy faces multidimensional challenges as the volatile global scenario threatens to create an adverse situation for the growth momentum of Bangladesh, the central bank warned yesterday. 

Bangladesh’s private sector credit growth surged to 14.07 per cent in August, almost touching the central bank’s target for the entire fiscal year, an ominous sign for the economy since it may stoke inflationary pressures. 

Bangladesh Bank can better fix the currency turmoil by freeing both interest rate and exchange rate to adjust over time.

A new digital platform rolled out by the Bangladesh Bank has opened a new horizon for local businesses to do trade with foreign currencies on a real-time basis.

The Bangladesh Bank today asked 27 banks to explain why they had allowed their credit cardholders to spend dollars breaching the stipulated ceiling set by the foreign exchange rules.

The central bank yesterday relaxed the rules on credit rescheduling and restructuring for the borrowers who have defaulted on the repayments of loans with non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs).

Open banking, which allows sharing data among banks, financial institutions and fintech with customers’ consent, can further enable financial inclusion and easier access to financing for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), experts said today.