The Nation|| The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may today start the implementation of 75 per cent Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) policy on public sector funds.
The exercise, which would be completed by the close of work today, will see over N750 billion public sector funds leaving banks’ vaults for the apex bank.
The CRR is a portion of banks’ deposits kept with the CBN as reserves. It was formerly 12 per cent for all deposits until last July when the regulator raised that of public sector funds to 50 per cent. It was hiked again to 75 per cent at the January 17 Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.
Analysts said these policy direction in less than a year represent a major challenge for lenders, especially those that are heavy on term deposits.