A file photo shows farmers sowing potato seeds on a land in Munshiganj. The Bangladesh Bank board on Tuesday approved a fresh refinance fund worth Tk 200 crore for making active bank accounts with Tk 10 deposits of marginal and landless farmers.

The Bangladesh Bank board on Tuesday approved a fresh refinance fund worth Tk 200 crore for making active bank accounts with Tk 10 deposits of marginal and landless farmers, said officials of the central bank.
The marginal and landless farmers, small shop owners, hawkers and people affected by river erosion having the Tk 10 accounts will get loans under the refinance scheme with a 12 per cent to 20 per cent interest rate.
The BB board also approved separate two regulations – Bangladesh Payment and Settlement System Regulation, 2014 (amended) and Regulation on Electronic Fund Transfer – at the meeting.
BB governor Atiur Rahman presided over the meeting at the central bank headquarters in the capital.
BB spokesperson and executive director M Mahfuzur Rahman told New Age on Tuesday that the clients would count 20 per cent rate of interest if they received the loan from the refinance fund through the linkage of non-government organisations.
The clients, however, will have to count 12 per cent interest rate if they received the loans through the scheduled banks.
The banks will receive the fund from the central bank with interest rate of five per cent.
A client will get maximum Tk 50,000 in credit from the banks for one year.
The banks including Sonali Bank, Janata Bank, Agrani Bank, Rupali Bank, Bangladesh Krishi Bank, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank and BASIC Bank opened more than 1 crore accounts with initial deposit of only Tk 10.
But the majority of the accounts are now inactive, the BB official said.
He said the banks would disburse the loan under the refinance fund for income generating activities.
According to the approved Bangladesh Payment and Settlement System Regulation, 2014 (amended), the country’s payment system operators and payment system providers will have to procure licences from the BB to conduct their business operation.
Payment system operator (PSO) refers to an entity for operating a settlement system for payment activities between participants of which the principal participant must be a scheduled bank or financial institution.
The PSOs are settling inter-bank transaction between banks and clients through automated teller machines.
Q-Cash, Cashlink Bangladesh and OMNIBUS are now providing such type of services in the country’s baking sector.
The PSOs and the PSPs will have to maintain a capital structure in a bid to mitigate their financial risks, according to the BB’s amended regulation.
From now on, the BB will monitor and supervise the PSOs as they are now brought under the central bank’s licencing, the BB official said.
‘The inter-bank settlement through ATM and point-on-sale increased significantly in the last few years. The settlement is mainly completed through the PSOs, so it is important to monitor them,’ he said.