Proposal to collect new fees on 14 banking services, various charges may increase

Banks in the country have proposed charging fees or charges on 14 new sectors from customers. The Association of Bankers, Bangladesh (ABB), the organization of banks, has recommended imposing fees on services that are currently provided free of charge or for which no charge is taken. Additionally, proposals have been made to increase charges for various existing banking services.

ABB recently submitted a proposal to this effect to the Bangladesh Bank. If the proposal is approved, banking costs for depositors, businessmen, importers, exporters, and borrowers may increase significantly.

Services where new fees are proposed

According to ABB's proposal, there is currently no fee for reactivating a dormant bank account. A fee of Tk 500 has been proposed for this service.

For running loans, the opportunity to charge a loan monitoring fee of a maximum of 1 percent of the outstanding loan or a maximum of Tk 10,000 per year has been sought. Additionally, separate recommendations have been made to set fees of up to 1 percent for buyers' credit, large corporate loans, trade finance, and additional risk premiums. There is also a proposal to impose a 2 percent commission on the sale of foreign currency cash.

Currently, there is no charge for withdrawing cash from personal bank accounts as many times as one wishes. According to the new proposal, cash can be withdrawn free of charge up to three times a month. A fee of Tk 100 will have to be paid for each withdrawal from the fourth to the tenth time, and Tk 300 for each withdrawal after the tenth time.

For business accounts, it has been proposed to allow free cash withdrawals up to 20 times a month, then charge Tk 100 per withdrawal from 21 to 50 times, and Tk 150 per withdrawal for more than 50 times.

In addition, ABB has proposed imposing new fees on several other services, including accepting LC applications, processing foreign and local LC documents, document authentication, canceling active LCs, balance confirmation certificates, early loan repayment, and Bangladesh Bank file approval.

Existing charges may also increase

Along with introducing new fees, proposals have also been made to increase various existing banking charges.

According to the proposal, the limit for imposing account maintenance fees based on the average balance of savings accounts will be reduced. It has been recommended to increase the loan processing fee from the current maximum of 0.50 percent to 2 percent, and the loan rescheduling or restructuring fee from 0.25 percent to 1 percent.

In addition, there are proposals to increase charges for early loan repayment, LC amendment fees, bank guarantee commission, solvency certificates, check returns, stop payments, and pay order issuance.

ABB's explanation

In the proposal sent to Bangladesh Bank, ABB said that due to the expansion of the scope of banking services, rising operational costs, expansion of technology-based services, and inflation, a review of the current charge structure is necessary.

For this reason, the organization has also proposed approving a maximum charge limit for all banks in the country, as well as allowing the opportunity to adjust charges by up to a maximum of 10 percent each year in line with operational costs, technology costs, and inflation.