Bangladesh Bank has announced a special loan facility to enable export-oriented garment factory owners to pay one month’s wages to workers, following requests from industry leaders.
Banks will be allowed to extend loans equivalent to one month’s salary payments.
The loan funds must be transferred directly to workers’ bank or mobile banking accounts, Bangladesh Bank said in a circular issued today, Tuesday.
Owners of operational, export-oriented industrial establishments will be eligible to avail themselves of the facility to pay wages and allowances to their workers and employees.
The circular states that export-oriented industries are experiencing production disruptions amid a challenging global and domestic economic environment, declining export trends, deferred purchase orders, and liquidity constraints.
As a result, their capacity to pay wages and allowances has weakened. In this context, financial support has become necessary to help these industries sustain production capacity and maintain export momentum.
Bangladesh Bank has issued the following directives to banks:
1. Term loans may be provided, outside the existing working capital loan limits, as needed and based on an assessment of the client’s capacity, to pay the salaries and allowances of workers and employees of operational export-oriented industrial establishments for the month of February.
2. The loan amount must not exceed the average wage and allowance payments disbursed by the borrowing establishment over the previous three months.
3. Industrial establishments that export at least 80 per cent of their total output will be considered export-oriented, and those that have paid wages to their workers and employees from November 2025 through January will be regarded as operational.
Their operational and export-oriented status must be certified by the relevant representative trade bodies, such as Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
4. Prevailing market-based interest rates will apply to these loans.
5. Banks must transfer the February 2026 wage payments directly to the respective workers’ bank or mobile banking accounts.
6. The loan is to be repaid as a term facility within a maximum of one year, including a three-month grace period, in equal instalments on a monthly or quarterly basis.
7. No additional interest, profit, fee or charge, by whatever name called, may be imposed beyond the regular interest applicable to the loan.