The central bank from now will do CAMEL rating of banks on their lending to women entrepreneurs to allow them to open branches, its chief said. The Bangladesh Bank will also watch the banks to see if their operations conform to the rules, governor Atiur Rahman said at a pre-budge discussion hosted by Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity office in the capital. The monitoring is meant to ensure that banks lend women entrepreneurs to strengthen the economy.

The Bangladesh Bank rates local banks on their overall activities on the basis of Capital, Assets, Management and Earnings and Liquidity or CAMEL.

The rating shows whether or not a bank is ‘problematic’. The rating is not made public, only the banks are notified.

The central bank recently asked banks to disburse at least 10 percent of the loan to small and medium enterprises, Rahman said.

Different programmes will be taken up under the Public-Private Partnership component in the next budget, he said.

The governor stressed on initiatives to allow participation of women entrepreneurs in the PPP.

“The opportunities can be taken in this budget,” he said.

Banks have lent 220 women entrepreneurs since 2007, with 73 of them entrepreneurs securing loan from Jan to Mar of the current fiscal year, Rahman said.

“So, loan distribution to (women) has increased.”

Women entrepreneurs are neglected, only six percent of them get loan from commercial banks, Selima Rahman, president of BWCCI, complained.

She demanded the figure be increased to 25 percent.

She also requested the government to constitute a fund of Tk 100 crore for women entrepreneurs in the upcoming budget.

Source: bdnews24

Popularity: 2% [?]