ONLINE REPORT
In a major policy change, Bangladesh Bank (BB) cut the SDF (standing deposit facility) by 50 basis points to 8.0 per cent to revitalise the faltering call-money market.
The Monetary Policy Department (MPD) of the central bank issued a circular in this regard. The latest change in the SDF will be effective from July 16, 2025. Currently, the interest rate in SDF is 8.50 per cent.
BB’s Executive Director (Grade-1) Dr Md Ezazul Islam said the central bank took the decision to discourage the growing use of SDF instruments by the commercial banks having surplus funds and vibrate the call money market further.
The move comes a day after a report published by The Financial Express titled “Call money market falters amid trust deficit, healthy banks park surplus credits in SDF despite low returns”.
Citing the central banks’ statistics, the report mentioned that the affluent banks kept some Tk 727.30 billion in the SDF in June this year, and the accumulated figure was 158 per cent higher than the previous month’s count of Tk 282.22 billion.
On the other hand, Tk 887.90 billion was transacted on the call money market in June 2025, down by around 15 per cent from May’s figure of Tk 1.04 trillion.