The central bank on Wednesday imposed restriction on commercial banks regarding changes in deposit and lending rates. It also asked all the scheduled banks to go by the directives to keep deposit rates within 12.5 percent and lending rate 15.50 percent respectively.

In a circular, Bangladesh Bank (BB) said from now on, scheduled banks could alter the rate of interest for lending and deposit for once a  month.

Earlier, in a single month, banks could alter the rate of interest for multiple times on the basis of nature of investment and volume and period of deposit.

The ABB (Association of Bankers, Bangladesh) leaders in early February had reached consensus on interest rate for deposits at a maximum of 12.50 per cent and fixed the lending rate at a maximum of 15.50 per cent.

A BB investigation found that some banks have offered the interest rate for deposit more than the ABB decision and thus, realising the interest rate higher than the ABB rate. According to the circular, all schedule banks shall obey the ceiling on lending and deposit rates fixed by the ABB while banks shall have to send weekly statements on deposit to the central bank in a prescribed form, which is downloadable from BB website.

The statement must be signed by the chief executive officer of any bank concerned, the circular reads.

The Independent/Bangladesh/ 1st March 2012