GREEN LOAN DISBURSEMENT
NBFIs asked to set annual target of minimum Tk 3cr
The Bangladesh Bank on Monday asked non-bank financial institutions to sign participant agreements with the central bank to give their clients
loans under a Tk 200 crore refinance scheme for green products.
The central bank also asked the NBFIs to set a loan disbursement target of at least Tk 3 crore a year under the refinance scheme.
The direction came at a meeting between the BB and the NBFIs at the central bank’s headquarters in the capital.
BB deputy governor SK Sur Chowdhury presided over the meeting while high officials of the central bank, and managing directors and chief executive officers of the NBFIs attended.
The BB launched the refinance scheme in August 2009 in a bid to attract green and environment-friendly projects like solar home systems, bio-gas plants and industrial effluent treatment plants.
Only one NBFI — Infrastructure Development Finance Company — has so far signed the participant agreement but it is yet to disburse any loan under the refinance scheme after signing the deal three years before, a BB official told New Age on Monday.
A total of 29 NBFIs are operating in the country.
Twenty-eight scheduled banks signed participant agreements with BB on loan disbursement under the refinance scheme three to four years before. Of them, 16 banks have so far disbursed Tk 112.45 crore in loans under the scheme and the rest 12 banks are yet to disburse any loan under the scheme.
Under the refinance scheme, banks and NBFIs can get loans at five per cent interest from the central bank and can charge a maximum 10 per cent interest on the loans given directly to their customers for the green projects.
But if a bank or an NBFI gives the loans to the non-government organisations for the green products, clients will get the loans from the NGOs at up to 11 to 12 per cent interest.
The BB official said the NBFIs at Monday’s meeting had assured the BB that they would sign participant agreements with the central bank on loan disbursement under the refinance scheme as early as possible.
The NBFIs made a commitment to the BB that they would give at least Tk 3 crore in loans annually for green products.
Another BB official said the central bank would show special consideration for the NBFIs which would ensure disbursement of the loans under the scheme in giving permission for opening new branch.
The BB will consider the rate of success of the NBFIs in loan disbursement under the scheme when it will make CAMELS rating, he said.
The BB on Sunday held a meeting with the scheduled banks and discussed the refinance scheme issue. The central bank at the meeting asked the banks to set a loan disbursement target of at least Tk 5 crore a year under the scheme.
-With New Age input
