Banks’ excess liquidity rose by Tk 3,000 crore within a month as they brought down their investment in the stockmarket and launched a drive to draw more deposits from clients. An increase in fund disbursement for the implementation of annual development programme (ADP) has also fuelled liquidity.
The banks had excess liquidity of Tk 27,087 crore on March 30, up from Tk 24,082 crore in February, according to the latest Bangladesh Bank (BB) statistics.
A BB official said the data for March and April are not available yet, but of late, the excess liquidity might have increased further.
As a result of the rise in excess liquidity, the rate of interest in the call money market has also marked a fall. The rate now hovers around 4 percent to 7 percent.
In December last year, the rate reached almost 34 percent.
Association of Banks Bangladesh (ABB) President K Mahmood Sattar told The Daily Star that the liquidity situation is now far better than what it was in February.
“It seems the liquidity situation has improved as the rate of interest fell in the call money market.”
However, Sattar said the situation is yet to improve fully.
At present, the call money rate is between 6 percent and 7 percent, he added.
The banker said the government’s spending of development fund has marked a rise, and the funds have started entering the banking system. Besides, the banks’ lending demand has been lowered and they have launched a drive to attract more deposits. These factors led to a better liquidity situation.
An official of a state-owned commercial bank said the central bank’s move against the banks to cut their excessive exposure to the capital market also had an effect on improving the liquidity situation.
The banks’ exposure to the stockmarket has already come down to almost half of their legal limit.
According to the Banking Companies Act, a bank can hold up to 10 percent of its liabilities (deposit) in the capital market. As per BB statistics on February 28, the total holding by the banks was 3.72 percent or Tk 15,548 crore of their liabilities.
A BB official said they are yet to receive the statistics on March 30 and onwards. But many of the banks have informed the BB verbally that their exposure to the capital market has shrunk further.
Sattar said the central bank has given different time limits to the banks for coming out of the capital market and it is hoped that the exposure will decrease further.
As a large chunk of banks’ money had entered the capital market, the market saw a liquidity surge and share prices went up abnormally, which created a crisis in the money market, according to a probe committee report on the recent stockmarket debacle.
Another official of the BB said, since last year they have been monitoring the banks’ exposure to the stockmarket to minimise their involvement in the share market.
Last month, the central bank governor, in a meeting with the chief executives of all commercial banks, warned that punitive measures will be taken if any bank was found excessively involved in the share market.
Due to a rise in inflation the central bank has taken tight monetary measures so that private credit growth decreases. This move also helped create excess liquidity in the banks.
In March, the amount of excess liquidity was Tk 11,212 crore in state banks, Tk 9,375 crore in private commercial banks, Tk 2,053 crore in Islamic banks and Tk 4,297 crore in foreign banks.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
