13 November, Minsk / Anna Kot - BELTA /. The National Bank of the Republic of Belarus is considering the possibility of developing an index of interest rates on deposits of individuals. In a letter sent to commercial banks, the regulator invites them to express their proposals and comments on this issue, reports a BELTA correspondent. The development of an index of interest rates on deposits of individuals (Belarus Index of Retail Deposit, BIRD) will contribute to the further development of the financial market of Belarus, including increasing its transparency, the National Bank is confident. It is proposed to calculate the index based on nominal deposit rates in Belarusian rubles, US dollars and euros with terms of 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and 12 months and lot sizes of Br10 million, $1 thousand and 1 thousand euros. At the same time, international information agencies Reuters or Bloomberg are ready to act as calculation agents. Thus, the participation of the National Bank in the calculation of the index will be minimized and will consist only in determining the list of banks participating in the calculation. Participating banks are expected to be selected according to data on the portfolio of deposits of individuals. The list is planned to be reviewed every six months. Every business day at a specified time, data from participating banks will be cut and the indicator will be published, calculated as the arithmetic mean of bank quotes with the exclusion of the two highest and two lowest rates. A similar index has been used in Ukraine since 2011. During this time, the index has become quite popular and is widely used by Ukrainian banks when forming floating interest rates on loans, the National Bank of Belarus notes. Currently, 26 out of 32 banks operating in Belarus have a license to attract funds from the population. -0-

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