Bangladesh Bank on Wednesday warned the scheduled banks that it would impose fine against them if they fail to settle their inland and foreign bills of letters of credit timely.
To this end, the BB issued a circular to all banks saying that the country’s banking sector has been facing an image crisis as some banks were not settling theiracceptance bills in due time.
The banks concerned are now counting excess interest rate and were not settling the acceptance bills in due time, the circular said.
Against the backdrop, the cost of import is now on an upward trend and it would put an adverse impact on the commodity price, the BB said.
For this reason, such types of delay in settling the acceptance bills hinder the public interest, it said.
The BB gave the instruction to the banks in accordance with Article 45 of the Bank Companies Act 1991.
The central bank will impose fine against the banks for their failure in settling the acceptance bills under the Article 109 of the act.
A BB official told New Age on Wednesday that the central bank had earlier issued a number of letters to the banks to settle their overdue acceptance bills.
Besides, the central bank arranged different meetings with the banks and set separate deadlines to settle their overdue bills, he said.
‘The banks, however, are yet to take required measures in this regard. So the overdue acceptance bills did not decrease remarkably in the recent months,’ he said.
-With New Age input
