Pvt banks decide to lower lending, deposit rates

The owners of private commercial banks have decided to bring down the lending rate at 9 per cent and deposit rate at 6 per cent from next month.

The decision came at an emergency meeting of Bangladesh Association of Banks (BAB) held today at its office in Dhaka.

"We have decided to lend at 9 per cent and take deposits of three months tenure at 6 per cent from July 1," Nazrul Islam Mazumder, chairman of BAB, told reporters soon after the meeting.

Currently, private banks are lending between 14 and 15 per cent.

In the proposed budget for next fiscal year, corporate tax for banks and non-bank financial institutions was reduced to 37.5 per cent from existing 40 per cent.

Current average of deposit rate is between 9 and 10 per cent.

The benefit was given to reduce the lending rate at single digit, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said at the post-budget press conference held recently.

Earlier in April, government slashed cash reserve requirement or CRR of banks by one percentage point to 5.5 per cent for the benefit of private commercial banks.