Bangladesh Bank (BB) instructed the scheduled banks to strictly maintain cash reserve requirement (CRR) and statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) which will be effective from February 1.
Currently the conventional banks are maintaining the SLR at 19 per cent, including the CRR, and the Shariah-based Islamic banks maintain 11.50 per cent SLR, also including the CRR. But from now on the banks have to maintain the SLR and CRR seperately. As per the new circular, the required CRR will be 6.0 per cent on bi-weekly average basis of the average total demand and time liabilities (ATDTL) with a provision of minimum 5.5 per cent on daily basis of the same ATDTL. The required SLR will be 13 percent daily for conventional banks and 5.5 percent daily for Islamic Shariah-based banks and Islamic Shariah-based banking of conventional banks of their average total demand and time liabilities.
Department of Off-Site Supervision (DOS) of BB issued a circular in this connection on Sunday asking the chief executives of all scheduled banks to comply with the new procedure of the CRR and the SLR from the stipulated timeframe.
At present, banks are allowed to maintain cash reserve with local currency (Bangladesh Taka) only.

News:The Independent/21-Dec-2013