Dhaka, Feb. 5 -- The central bank on Thursday relaxed the rules on the provisioning of bank loans to brokerage houses, merchant banks and stock dealers, a move that may make it easier for intermediaries to get credits.

A loan loss provision is an income statement expense set aside as an allowance for uncollected loans and loan payments. The provision is used to cover various kinds of loan losses such as non-performing loans and customer bankruptcy.

In 2012, the Bangladesh Bank advised banks to maintain a 2 per cent general provision on the unclassified amount for loans to brokerage houses, merchant banks and stock dealers.

Now it has been decided that banks will have to maintain a general provision of 1 per cent on the unclassified amo...