Business Desk :
Bank-client relationship is not the only criteria for the stimulus package, rather the loan can be given based on books of accounts as per the circular, observed Bangladesh Bank (BB) Deputy Governor Abu Farah Md Nasser.
He was speaking at the 9th Financial Sector Development Working Committee (FSDWC) Meeting organized virtually by Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD) on Wednesday.
Abu Farah Md. Nasser and Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) Acting President N K A Mobin co-chaired the meeting. The BB Deputy Governor also observed that currently banks like BRAC Bank are improving the modalities of SME banking. CGS has been implemented for the collateral-free loan. In each division of the country, collateral-free loan lending has been prioritized.
10% collateral-free loan has been directed to provide to the women entrepreneurs. 8% of the total loan has to be gone to the women entrepreneurs at 5% interest. 1% incentive has been announced for both women entrepreneurs and banks for recognizing good borrowers.
Abu Farah Md. Nasser informed the meeting that the Ministry of Industries has already been requested to bring alternatives for trade licenses for the cottage, micro, and small enterprises so that the trade license issue in lending can be resolved. He informed that BB has introduced a new scheme of BDT 500 crore collateral-free loan through agent banking, MFS, and bank sub-branch to provide finance to the rural and ultra-poor individuals and businesses.
The scheme would follow the model of Leno financing to process loan applications in the shortest possible time and funding at the grassroots level. He further added that the central bank has implemented policies in such a way that will ensure liquidity support of banks and reduce the burden of cost of fund for the private sector especially CMSMEs.
He also mentioned the initiative of Central Bank and World Bank in setting up an independent entity for payment gateway for CMSMEs. He emphasized the proactive initiatives of Bangladesh Bank and country’s scheduled banks that up to June 2020 BDT 2,43,000crore disbursement has been made to the SMEs by Banks.
