SoBs decide to keep deposit rates unchanged

Four state-owned commercial banks have decided not to reduce their deposit rates rather exert coordinated efforts to help their clients face the ongoing global recession.
The decision came from a meeting of the managing directors of the Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali banks at the Sonali Bank auditorium Thursday morning, banking sources said.
In contrast to the plan of the private banks to reduce interest rate on deposits, the SOBs on Thursday’s meeting decided not to change their deposit rate to provide some relief to their clients.
As part of other efforts, the state-owned banks would provide loans at below 13 percent lending rate to the industries affected by the ongoing global meltdown, sources added.
Earlier, the Bangladesh Bank asked the commercial banks to reduce lending at 13 per cent for loans to the probable recession-affected industries in the country.
The private sector banks at present are charging 18 to 19 percent interest rate for consumer credit and 14.75 per cent for the development sector loans.
After the meeting, the Sonali Bank’s managing director SA Chowdhury told reporters that they (SOBs) would reduce their lending rate as per the central bank directives to give respite to their clients to cope with the negative impact of the unprecedented global recession.
‘We have also decided to form an asset management company to recovering default loans,’ he added.
The private banks in Bangladesh, like the state-owned banks in India, have their own asset management companies to recover default loans.
The Agrani Bank’s managing director Syed Abu Nasir Bukhtear Ahmed told New Age that the SOBs would reduce their lending rate to below 13 percent.
‘Lending rate of SOBs in some sectors is now at 14.5 per cent which would also be brought down to 13 per cent,’ he added.
Earlier, the BB enhanced the credit limit of the four state-owned commercial banks from 5 to 10 per cent to enable them disburse more loans to offset global recession.

The New Age