Bangladesh Bank has issued a directive requiring all scheduled banks to adopt a revised reporting protocol for loans and advances provided to the cottage, micro, small, and medium enterprise (CMSME) sector, now including informal and marginal entrepreneurs.
Outlined in a circular issued Wednesday by the central bank’s Statistics Department, the move enforces guidelines introduced in the SME and Special Programs Department’s Master Circular No. 01, dated March 17, 2025.
Under the new rules, banks must submit quarterly SBS-3 statements using an updated SME Code structure starting from the April–June 2025 quarter. This code classifies enterprises based on fixed asset value (excluding land and buildings), employment size, and annual turnover, segmented across service, trade, and manufacturing subsectors.
A key addition is the formal inclusion of “Informal/Non-Institutional/Marginal” entrepreneurs—defined as businesses with under Tk 0.5 million in fixed assets, no more than 10 workers (including family), and no turnover requirement.
The revised framework aims to ensure better data accuracy and visibility into credit flow across all layers of the CMSME sector, strengthening financial inclusion and policy targeting.
