Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The central bank of Bangladesh has directed the commercial banks not to add any service charge to the interest on lending, officials said.
"The central bank has taken the latest move aiming to facilitate business activities across the country," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) said, adding that the BB is monitoring charges of different banks closely.
The central bank issued a circular in this connection on Thursday and asked the chief executives and managing directors of all scheduled banks to follow the instruction on realizing service charge.
The fresh move came against the backdrop of non-compliance of the existing guideline on interest rate on lending properly by some of the banks.
Businessmen welcomed the BB's new move, saying that it would help reduce the cost of doing businesses in Bangladesh.
The central bank has asked the banks not to impose any additional charge as it is included in the interest rate on lending for all credit including export.
BBN/SSR/AD-15Oct10-9:40 am (BST)