HSBC Bangladesh Global Markets in collaboration with Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers' Association (BAFEDA) arranged a workshop on "Dhaka Inter-Bank Offer Rate (DIBOR)" for all the banking institutions at a city hotel recently, said a press release.

Deputy Governor of Bangladesh Bank Ziaul Hasan Siddiqui was present at the workshop as the chief guest.

DIBOR, which is planned to be rolled out formally by January 01, 2010, is expected to become the country's benchmark for short-term interest rate and have global visibility. The objective of the workshop was not only to announce the DIBOR implementation process and timeline, but also to highlight its benefits to the market and the country. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Siddiqui appreciated BAFEDA and HSBC for hosting such an initiative and explained the role of the central bank in supporting financial market developing initiatives.

He also said that the implementation of DIBOR would help create a term money market, which was required for a liquid and active FX Forwards market. Therefore, even though BAFEDA is primarily a Foreign Exchange dealers association, rolling out the money market initiative, such as DIBOR by BAFEDA is well justified.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of HSBC Bangladesh Sanjay Prakash said the HSBC is always ready to provide technical support necessary to help improve the financial sector of any country in which it operates.

Mr Prakash also stated that Bangladesh now deserves a more noticeable footprint in the global economy, and hoped that this initiative would open new avenues for further foreign investments in Bangladesh.

Chairman of the Executive Committee of BAFEDA and Managing Director and CEO of Agrani Bank Syed Abu Naser Bukhtear Ahmed explained that the DIBOR rates would be maintained on the BAFEDA website and elaborated some of the benefits of DIBOR for the whole market and the country.

Head of Global Markets of HSBC Bangladesh and Chairman of BAFEDA technical committee Tarique I Khan highlighted the scope and opportunities of the implementation of DIBOR.