The country’s eight Islamic banks will be able to get refinance fund for the first time from Bangladesh Bank for rural area-based agro-processing and small industries.
The BB will hold a meeting with the senior officials of the Islamic banks today in this regard and it (central bank) will issue a circular by this week, a central bank official told New Age on Monday.
The BB board in a meeting on September 30 made a decision to create a separate refinance scheme to the tune of Tk 100 crore for Islamic banks, as they cannot receive any fund from the existing refinance schemes due to their Islamic Shariah-based banking, he said.
The fund will be operated on the basis of Shariah-based policy and the scheme may get popularity in a short time as the rural areas have a demand for Shariah-based banking, the official said.
‘Different Islamic banks have been requesting the BB for a long to create a separate refinance fund as they could not get any fund from the existing interest-based refinance fund. So the central bank decided to create it’, he said.
The conventional banks are now receiving refinance fund of Japan International Cooperation Agency, Asian Development Bank and Bangladesh Bank.
The conventional banks have to count per cent rate of interest against their receiving fund of the refinance schemes, he said.
On the other hand, the Islamic banks will have to count Mudaraba profit rate against their receiving refinance fund of Tk 100 crore.
The Mudaraba profit rate of the new refinance scheme would not be below five per cent interest rate of the existing conventional refinance fund, the official said.
Another BB official said Tk 100 crore for the new refinance scheme would not be provided from the central bank’s profit.
The BB will open an account with its Accounts and Budgeting Department to create the refinance scheme and the existing available fund of the central bank will be used for the fund.
According to the BB data, eight Islamic banks distributed 42 per cent of the total SME funds amounting to Tk 70,000 crore disbursed by all scheduled banks in 2012.
The new refinance scheme will also encourage the Islamic banks to expand their credit programme in the SME sector, the BB official hoped.
-With New Age input
