Bangladesh Bank today increased its policy rate by 25 basis points in a major development that is likely to make credit costly and curb inflation.

The Bangladesh Bank today asked banks to suggest uniform exchange rates of the taka against the US dollar in order to bring back the stability in the country’s foreign exchange market.

Bangladesh Bank has formed a Tk 2,000 crore refinance scheme to ensure sustainable development of the shipping industry, increase export earnings and employment and gradually reduce import dependence.

Bangladesh Bank yesterday said that private banks would be able to waive the interest of borrowers whose funds have been transferred to the lenders’ income segment, relaxing its previous stance in order to facilitate influential defaulters.

Bangladesh Bank today instructed banks to take up to 75 per cent of payments in advance from businesses during opening of letters of credit for import of luxury and non-essential goods.

Between August 2018 and September 2020, Dhaka-based Mamun Enterprise has drawn over Tk 6.2 crore in incentives against agro exports.

Any banker with 10 years of work experience can now be appointed or promoted as chief financial officer (CFO) at any bank or financial institution.

The central bank today requested law enforcement agencies to not create any roadblocks for bank employees while going to and from their office during the ongoing shutdown declared by the government.

The Supreme Court has quizzed an official of Bangladesh Bank on the discrepancy in the bank regulator’s findings over embezzlement at International Leasing and Financial Services Limited (ILFSL), a non-bank financial institution.

The government is going to exceed its annual limit for bank borrowing within the first half of this fiscal year due to poor revenue collection, and this could give a credit crunch for the private sector to deal with.

Bangladesh Bank yesterday walked back on its stance of forcing international credit cardholders to take prior approval from banks for every cross-border transaction, as better sense prevailed amongst the decision makers of the regulatory body of the country’s financial system.

The High Court (HC) has ordered Bangladesh Bank to form a nine-member committee with experts of the banking sector to find out loopholes in lending and recovery of loans.

Beximco Ltd got its way, yet again. The central bank went out of its way to accept Beximco’s request for rescheduling demand loan of Tk 430.05 crore, and in so doing, created a moral hazard for the banking sector.

The Supreme Court stays till July 8 the High Court orders that halted Bangladesh Bank’s circular allowing defaulters to reschedule their loans with a repayment period of up to 10 years and get further loans.

The central bank yesterday injected Tk 2,300 crore into the money market to ease liquidity crunch in the banking sector amid the cash withdrawal spree in the lead up to Eid.

Bangladesh Bank (BB) has given approval for three new banks to be floated at a time when the banking sector is both saturated and stressed due to nonperforming loans (NPLs) reaching dangerous levels.

Sacked customs official Helaluddin used to identify himself as a social worker.

A court in the Philippines yesterday convicted a former branch manager at Manila-based Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) of money laundering, in the first conviction over the Bangladesh Bank reserves heist in which $81 million was stolen nearly three years ago.

Bangladesh will sue the Federal Reserve Bank of New York over the money stolen during the 2016 cyber heist -- one of the biggest cyber crimes in the world -- Finance Minister AMA Muhith said yesterday.

Two things come easy in Bangladesh -- getting big bank loans and blissfully failing to repay. The money in the vaults seems to be the easiest prey today.