Conventional banks' Islamic banking branches and windows from now will be able to avail short-term loans under an "Islamic Bank Liquidity Facility" (IBLF) of Bangladesh Bank, something previously offered to solely Shariah-based banks.

The central bank yesterday revised guidelines and operating procedures, saying that conventional banks maintaining current or Al-Wadiah accounts with Bangladesh Bank are eligible for the IBLF.

Previously only Shariah-based banks were allowed to avail the IBLF against Bangladesh Government Investment Sukuk (BGIS) bonds as securities.

The revised guidelines said the tenures of the liquidity facility would be 7 days, 14 days and 28 days whereas previously it was only 14 days.

The profit rate will be the one-month Mudaraba Term Deposit Receipt (MTDR) rate of the respective bank.

If there is no one-month MTDR rate, then the profit rate of the next higher-term deposit or MTDR declared by the respective bank will be considered as the provisional profit rate of the IBLF, it said.

Previously, the profit rate for a three-month term was considered as per the MTDR rate.

The central bank introduced the IBLF for the first time in December 2022 when most of the Shariah-based banks were facing a liquidity crisis.

There are 10 full-fledged Islamic banks in the country and the number of Islamic banking branches, including those of conventional commercial banks, stood at 1,700 at the end of last year.