Bangladesh Bank on Tuesday said 25 non-primary dealer banks would have to mandatorily hold 40 per cent of treasury bills and bonds.
The BB issued a circular to chief executive officers and managing directors of all commercial banks saying that the distribution of T-bills and T-bonds was not equilibrium in the banking sector.
The circular said the rest of 60 per cent of the T-bills and T-bonds would be disbursed to the 12 primary dealers’ banks.
A BB official told New Age that there was no certain regulation to hold T-bills and T-bonds for the non- PD banks.
In order to establish a proper distribution of bills and bonds in the banking sector, the BB included the 25 non-PD banks to hold the T-bills T-bonds by issuing the circular, he said.   
The official said the 12 PD banks had been facing an acute liquidity crisis for the last few months due to their large investment in the treasury bills and bonds to facilitate government borrowings.
The circular said the 25 non- PD banks would not be considered as primary dealer banks.
The banks, however, would get liquidity support facility from the BB, the circular said.
The 25 banks, which would have to hold 40 per cent T-bills and T-bonds, are: Rupali Bank, Bank Asia, Bangladesh Commerce Bank, BRAC Bank, Dhaka Bank, Dutch-Bangla Bank, Eastern Bank, IFIC Bank, ONE Bank, Premier Bank, Pubali Bank, Standard Bank, The City Bank, Trust Bank, UCBL, Bank Al-Falah, Citibank NA, Commercial Bank of Ceylon, Habib Bank, HSBC, National Bank of Pakistan, State Bank of India, Standard Chartered Bank, Woori Bank and BASIC Bank.
The official said the seven Islamic banks did not participate in the bid of T-bills and T-bonds due to their Shariah-based banking.