The Association of Bankers, Bangladesh (ABB) said bringing interest rates on SME loans down to single digit would be difficult, as the cost of lending in this sector was very high. He said that most of the banks that lent money to the SMEs would find the single digit interest rate difficult to apply, as they lent money mostly to the NGOs (non-government organizations). He asked the bankers to reduce their operating costs before the implementation of single digit interest rate in April this year. BAB president requested the finance minister to fix the interest rate on bank deposits of government organizations at 6%. “If the banks don’t get enough of the government deposits, it would be difficult for them to apply 9% interest rate on loans,” he said.

Source: Dhaka Tribune January 14, 2020 16:18 UTC