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Banks' excess liquidity ebbs

Sajjadur Rahman
Banks' excess liquidity came down by nearly Tk 800 crore in the July-September period, showing a slight improvement in sluggish investment.
Surplus liquidity of the scheduled banks stood at Tk 33,995 crore at the end of September 2009, compared to Tk 34,762 crore a quarter ago, Bangladesh Bank (BB) statistics show.
Top bankers however said liquidity dropped because of greater bank investment in government securities, not because of commercial lending.
"Banks are investing their money in different government securities and bonds,” said Shahjahan Bhuiyan, managing director of United Commercial Bank.
Part of the reason is, banks are increasingly funding raw material imports and capital investments, said Anis A Khan, managingdirectorofMutualTrust Bank.
"Financing the import of industrial raw materials and capital investments are also rising,” Khan said yesterday by phone from abroad.
Investment has been on the decline, hurt by the global financial slowdown and domestic energy crisis, since the third quarter of 2008. Banks' excess liquidity has since been soaring, showing signs of sluggish investment demand.
Excess liquidity, which was less thanTk 13,000 crore in June 2008, almost trebled to Tk 35,000 crore in June 2009. So banks are flocking to government securities to get some returns. There are a good number of government bonds in the market with maturity periods ranging between 6 months to 25 years. Interest rates on these securities range between 5 percent to nearly 15 percent, based on maturity.
Bankers are also unsure whether industrial term-loans played any role in improving the gloomy investment scenario.
Data shows industrial term-loans rose by nearly Tk 450 crore in the July-September period from the same period last year.
“The figure is not significant compared to the size of our economy," said Shahjahan Bhuiyan, who is also a vice chairman of the Association of Bankers Bangladesh, a platform of private bank managing directors. “Where is the credit going?"
"Is it going towards infrastructure, rehabilitation and maintenance of existing industries or loan rescheduling?" said the UCB managing director.
Bhuiyan however said the investment scenario is improving by the day.
sajjad@thedailystar.net