Home ›› 02 Aug 2022 ›› Front
State-run banks are now in deep crisis of US dollar due to the demand-supply pressure created by growing import payment despite the central bank’s support.
Officials of the Treasury Department of the four state-run banks said they were facing huge challenges of managing the USD crisis because remittance and exports earning were able to meet only 15 to 20 percent of their demand for import payment.
The officials also said they were not receiving remittance from the foreign exchange house as its rates to collect remittance are far bellow than private banks.
On Sunday, Sonali Bank offered Tk103 to collect remittance from the foreign exchange house and at the same time private commercial Eastern Bank and Dutch-Bangla Bank offered the highest Tk108 to collect remittance.
A high official of Treasury Department of Sonali Bank told The Business Post that the bank was not getting enough remittance due to lower rate than private banks.
During the first 21 days of July, Sonali Bank received $62.83 million in remittance and at the same time Dutch-Bangla Bank received $112.11 million remittance.
The official said the banks were financing in the major government projects and paying for oil import of the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC).
The four state-run banks - Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali - are continuously seeking liquidity support from the Bangladesh Bank due to their dollar buying spree.
Janata Bank is borrowing Tk6,000 crore worth of US dollar from the BB every day due to their dollar crisis. A high official of the bank’s Treasury Department said the bank was facing huge crisis of USD due to demand-supply pressure.
Seeking anonymity, he said, major exporters of the bank diverted to private banks due to irregularities and scam, which was one of reason for USD crisis.
Surplus liquidity of Janata Bank came down to Tk10, 000 crore at the end of June of this year. The excess fund was Tk16,000 crore at the end of December last year.
Agrani Bank’s surplus fund stood at Tk10, 000 crore at the end of June this year, down by Tk6,000 crore in the last six months, as per the BB data.
On Sunday, the bank borrowed around Tk2100 crore through repo form the central bank, said a high official of the bank.
Rupali Bank officials said they were also facing loss in the ongoing dollar shortage. A high official of the bank said they were collecting remittance at high rate but settling import payment at comparatively lower rate.
According to the central bank data, the central bank injected a record $7.62 billion from its reserves into banks in the last fiscal year.
Besides, the Bangladesh Bank pumped over $1 billion into the country’s banking industry in the first 28 days of July alone to cool down the foreign exchange market.
Of the central bank’s dollar support from the reserve, the state-run banks received around 90 percent from this support.
