Dhaka: The government is going to launch Floating Rate Treasury Bond (FRTB) as part of its plan to develop a bond market in the country’s financial sector.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith dropped the hint while unveiling the national budget 2018-19 at the Jatiya Sangsad on Thursday, reports the UNB.

He said it is possible to develop a bond market through transactions of various types of securities. ‘Keeping this in view, we’re going to launch Floating Rate Treasury Bond (BFIU).’ 

Muhith mentioned that the guidelines and directives have already been issued in this regard.

He also mentioned that the government is planning to introduce Shariah-based securities as no Shariah-based securities have been introduced until now although the share of Islamic banking is around 20 per cent.

Besides, he said, steps have been taken to create a database of Savings Certificate buyers and connect it with the NID database. 

The Finance Minister said it will be possible to bring more discipline in the management of savings certificate on completion of this programme.

Muhith also mentioned that a  Memorandum  of  Understanding  has  been  signed  between Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) and the National Board of  Revenue  to  exchange  information  and  enhance  inter-agency cooperation for preventing money laundering.

‘Within the remit of this MoU, the two agencies will be able to exchange information in their respective databases while forging cooperation and sharing information to investigate money laundering cases,’ he said.